In the Nagaon district of Assam, the forest officers on Wednesday discovered the remains of several wild animals, including two leopard skins.
Based on information from the forest department, authorities from the Nagaon Forest Division on Wednesday began an operation in the areas of Doboka Namati and Kampur and found two leopard skins as well as a few pangolin skins. In connection with the crime, the forest officers also arrested four people identified as Abdul Rahman, Afaz Uddin, Samed Ali, and Nizam Uddin.
The Nagaon Forest Division official had registered a case in connection with the recovery.
We launched the operation based on the information received yesterday from the PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests) and HoFF (Head of Forest Forces), said Bhaskar Deka, District Forest officer, Nagaon Forest Division.
"After getting the information we went to the Doboka Namati where we detected some pangolin skin and leopard skin. We seized pangolin skins weighing about 10-12 kg and two leopard skins," Deka said.
Three people were arrested earlier this month by Assam forest officers for allegedly participating in the illicit rhino horn trafficking in the Golaghat area.
The trio is accused by the forest officers of smuggling rhino horns close to Kaziranga National Park. Assam's Orang National Park was the site of a case of poachers using tranquilizers to remove rhino horn earlier this year, which presented a new challenge for the state's forest department to preserve one-horned rhinoceros.
According to reports, poachers in the national park hacked off the horn without killing a sub-adult rhino. On May 9, park officials learned of the incident and found a dehorned sub-adult male rhino aged 10-12 years in the Muwamari part of the park.
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