Guwahati: In yet another blow to the thriving illegal wildlife trade in the Northeast, teams led by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Guwahati, recovered multiple tiger parts, including the skin of a full grown Royal Bengal Tiger, from an oil depot along the national highway at Banderdewa close to Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border on Tuesday.
Three persons – Tape Yomcha and Naynay Yomcha from Arunachal Pradesh and Probin Doley from Assam – were detained by the joint teams in connection with the recovery of the tiger parts.
WCCB sources told EastMojo that four tiger canines, 18 tiger nails, bones and a skull weighing 14.400 kg were also seized from the accused trio.
Teams from the Harmuti Range under Lakhimpur Division, Assam Police, Arunachal forest and police departments were part of the operation led by WCCB assistant director in-charge Jawaharlal Baro.
The operation was based on inputs developed by WCCB sub-regional office, Guwahati.
“During preliminary interrogation, it came to light that the tiger was poached in retaliatory killing as it was hunting down cattle in the villages at West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The case has been handed over to Harmuti Range for further investigation,” an official statement said.
This is the second ‘smuggled’ wildlife recovery in two back-to-back days by teams led by the WCCB, Guwahati. On Monday, 6.300 kg pangolin scales were seized in a joint operation with the Digboi Forest Division at Makum in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district.
Three persons from Arunachal Pradesh were detained in that case.
As part of its intensified operations, the WCCB teams have seized over 10 kg pangolin scales over the past two weeks.
On January 27 last, a joint operation by teams from the WCCB Guwahati and Assam forest department (Sonapur range) led to the seizure of pangolin scales weighing 4.100 kg from a resort in Sonapur on the outskirts of Guwahati. Seven persons were detained.
Last Saturday, an unclaimed consignment of 235 rare turtles was recovered by Railway Protection Force (RPF) from a train at Kamakhya Railway Station here. The turtles, mostly Indian flapshell turtles, were found hidden inside 10 bags.
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