Nepali citizen arrested with leopard skin in Uttarakhand’s Champawat

This is not the first such incident in Champawat district. In February, a 45-year-old person was arrested with three leopard hides.

The Uttarakhand forest department on Wednesday arrested a Nepali citizen and recovered a leopard hide from him in Champawat district, forest officials said.

The Forest department team with the accused Nepali citizen in Champawat.(HT PHOTO.)

Kundan Kumar, divisional forest officer (DFO) Haldwani said, “We received a tip-off that some people were planning to sell a leopard hide.”

“Following the input, we constituted a team under the leadership of Sharda Range officer Mahesh Singh Bisht and started checking in the Brahmadev forest beat area in Champawat. On Wednesday morning about 7 am, we found a person who behaved suspiciously,” he said.

Kumar said, “Our team saw a Nepali person who had a plastic bag. When he saw our team, he started running away. The team chased him and succeeded in arresting him. When we looked inside the plastic bag, we found there was a leopard hide in it.”

The DFO said the accused has been identified as one Balraj Sarki, resident of Kanchanpur district in Nepal.

“We have arrested and booked him under Section 9 and other relevant sections of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972,” he added.

This is not the first such incident in Champawat district. In February, a 45-year-old person was arrested with three leopard hides.