Tiger skin seized in Kolkata, three held

Acting on a tip-off, officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (eastern region) and state forest department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit conducted a joint raid in a hotel on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in east Kolkata.

A tiger skin was seized from a hotel in Kolkata and three people were arrested in this connection on Thursday.

WCCB officials said that Mukherjee was the main smuggler. He was trying to sell off the skin at Rs 50 lakh. The accused will be produced in court on Friday. (HT PHOTO.)

Acting on a tip-off, officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (eastern region) and state forest department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit conducted a joint raid in a hotel on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in east Kolkata.

“We have seized an old tiger skin. Three people - Aninda Mukherjee (52), Tarak Haldar (57) and Ebrahim Mondol (42) were arrested,” said Agni Mitra, deputy director, WCCB (eastern region)

WCCB officials said that Mukherjee was the main smuggler. He was trying to sell off the skin at Rs 50 lakh. The accused will be produced in court on Friday.

“I don’t think it is a case of recent poaching. The tiger doesn’t look like one from Bengal. It is stuffed. It is unlikely that someone in India would pay so much money to buy it. Possibly it was being smuggled to a foreign buyer,” said Atanu Raha, former principal chief conservator of forests of West Bengal said.