The Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested a gang leader who was wanted for allegedly killing tigers and smuggling their body parts to buyers in Nepal and China, officials said.
The accused has been identified as Anil Kumar, a resident of Kothia village under the Majhgayi Police Station area in Lakhimpur Kheri district, the special task force (STF) said in a statement issued here on Monday.
”Kumar was arrested from Lakhimpur Kheri district in a joint operation of STF Uttar Pradesh and the Forest Department. A mobile phone and Rs 110 was recovered from the arrested person,” the release said.
For the past few days, information was received about a few people killing tigers in the wildlife sanctuaries in Lakhimpur Kheri and Pilibhit districts and smuggling their skin, bones, and nails, among other body parts, the STF said.
The STF received a tip-off that some people of Nighasan in Lakhimpur Kheri had killed a tiger and sold its skin and nails and now were planning to sell its bones to a Nepalese smuggler, it added.
Acting on this information, an STF team led by Sub-Inspector Tej Bahadur Singh arrested two members of the gang on September 30 and recovered the skeleton of a tiger. On their instance, a joint team of the STF and Forest Department conducted a raid and arrested the gang’s kingpin, the STF statement said.
During interrogation, Kumar said the skeleton of the tiger recovered on September 30 was to be sold in Nepal and China, where its bones are converted to powder form for making various kinds of power enhancers, it added.
On being interrogated about hunting tigers, the accused said his family has been hunting the animal for generations, the STF said.
Kumar said he and his gang associates used to recce the places where tigers frequented and place iron traps at such spots. Whenever tigers passed through them, their feet got stuck and they died eventually, the statement said.
The gang used to then separate the animal’s skin, meat, and bones, among other body parts and hide them. Once they established contact with the smugglers from Nepal and China, they used to sell the animal parts and earn between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, it added.
On September 30, Kumar’s aides were going to Nepal to sell tiger bones when they were nabbed by the STF team. The skeleton recovered that day belonged to a tiger whose skin and nails were already sold by the gang to smugglers in Nepal, the STF added.
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