Pune and Nagpur customs arrest woman trying to smuggle tigress skin worth 5 crore by hiding under saree
The poachers brutally poached the tigress for her skin by first poisoning her and then drowning in a forest area on the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Pune and Nagpur Customs officials conducted a joint operation and seized the hide of tigress worth over Rs 5 crore from a woman concealing it under her saree, as she attempted to traffic it to sell to international buyers. The action was conducted in Jalgaon district and a total of six persons, including the woman and the wildlife smuggling gang’s alleged mastermind, were arrested Friday.
The tigress was brutally poached as she was poisoned and then drowned in a forest area along the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Officials of Pune customs said that the action was the result of a close surveillance that was kept on the smuggling gang headed by Mohammad Athar (58), from Madhya Pradesh.
Commissioner of Customs Pune, Yashodhan Wanage said, “In August last year we had seized a leopard skin worth Rs one crore as part of an action in Satara. We had arrested one person at the time and had found out that the skin was being smuggled to be sold to foreign buyers. The name of one Mohammad Athar had surfaced in that operation for his involvement in wildlife trade. We kept a close watch on the syndicate which Athar was a part of.”
He added, “Last month we received information that a tiger trophy, which is the skin of a tiger suspected to have been killed in the 1970s, was being brought to Pune from Madhya Pradesh to be sold through the syndicate. We intercepted that tiger trophy, believed to be worth Rs two crore, and seized it in Pune last month and arrested two persons. We did not release details of the action to the media as our team was working on more crucial leads. The intelligence was developed further and we have now recovered the skin of a recently killed tiger, estimated to be worth Rs five crore. We have arrested six persons in the action conducted in Jalgaon on July 26.”
A Customs officer said, “Initial probe suggests the skin we seized in Jalgaon is of a fully grown tigress aged between four to five years. Probe suggests that poachers had first located a carcass of an antelope killed and partially eaten by this tigress. The poachers are believed to have then poisoned the carass with a pesticide. When the tigress came back to continue consuming the carcass, she got poisoned. The probe suggests that the tigress did not die immediately. The poachers further tracked it and killed her by drowning her in a stream. Probe suggests that this happened around 45 days ago in a forest area on the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Our team visited the area in the forest where the animal was killed and the place where it was skinned. Our team has also recovered the other body parts of the tiger, which also have a high value in the international illegal market.”
Officials said they also investigated the geotag trace of the tigress and investigation was handed over to the Maharashtra forest department for further probe.
“Two of the arrested suspects are women. When our team intercepted the suspects on the morning of July 26 on Jalgaon Bhusawal Road, we found that one of the arrested women was wearing the skin under her saree to conceal it.
With these arrests, a total of nine persons have been arrested and besides the tigress skin, a leopard skin and 50-year-old tiger head trophy were recovered from them.
