This story is from March 12, 2020

Three held for trying to sell leopard skin in Mancherial district

The special team of Ramagundam police raided a house on Wednesday in Sirsa village near Kotapalli of Mancherial district in Telangana and arrested three poachers who were trying to sell leopard skin.
Three held for trying to sell leopard skin in Mancherial district
Representative image
HYDERABAD: The special team of Ramagundam police raided a house on Wednesday in Sirsa village near Kotapalli of Mancherial district in Telangana and arrested three poachers who were trying to sell leopard skin.
The accused were identified as K Tirupati, S Gangaram and V Tulsiram of Marupalli in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, residents of Marupalli village abutting Pranahita river in Maharashtra. During interrogation, the accused confessed that they killed a leopard at Marupalli village in Aheri taluk of Gadchiroli district and brought the leopard’s skin to Telangana for sale.

According to police, the accused were agricultural labourers and have been poaching animals by laying electric wire traps. After coming to know from people about the movement of the leopard near Sironcha forest area abutting Pranahita river in Maharashtra, they planned to kill it and sell its skin for profit. “The accused identified the locations where the leopard was moving by tracking its pug marks. They connected the wires to the overhead electric line and laid traps. After killing the leopard, the accused removed its skin and nails,” Ramagundam commissioner V Satyanarayana said.
The commissioner said that they are using drone cameras to prevent poaching and timber smuggling. “We are binding over timber smugglers and poachers. So far, we have bound over 56 offenders in nine cases,” the commissioner said.
Previously, In March 2019, Ramagundam police arrested six poachers and seized leopard skin along with its nails from their possession. Ramagundam police had also arrested 20 persons in a tiger poaching case in 2019.
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