BHUBANESWAR: In a major crackdown, a joint team of officials from Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Odisha and Chhattisgarh forest departments busted an inter-state smuggling racket and seized four big cat skins from Kalahandi.
Six persons were also arrested in this connection, said, forest officials.
The seizure included a tiger and a leopard skin from M Rampur area and two leopard hides from the Junagarh area.
The tiger skin, however, appears to be suspicious as the size of the skin and nails on it are relatively small, said Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Wildlife Shashi Paul.
"We are examining it and if required will send the sample to the Centre for Wildlife Health at OUAT or forensic lab of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) at Dehradun for confirmation," the PCCF (Wildlife) said.
He said all the six accused nabbed in this connection are the middlemen who were apprehended by the joint WCCB and forest team while striking a deal for the sale of the skins.
Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of WCCB Chhattisgarh forest officials and officials of Kalahandi North and South forest divisions conducted raids in M Rampur and Junagarh and arrested the smugglers.
Paul said the investigation is on to find out others involved in the inter-state tiger skin smuggling racket.
He also said that it hasn't be ascertained yet as to where these big cats were killed.
Forest officials of Chhatisgarh said that a bigger smuggling syndicate could be at work with at least five tiger skins have been seized from the Gariabundh area of their state in the last six months and all the accused were from Kalahandi. On that link forest officials had conducted raids in Kalahandi, they said.
Kalahandi (North) DFO Nitish Kumar said interrogation is on to find interstate poaching and trading link.
The accused have been booked under various sections of the IPC and Wildlife Protection Act.