Leopard and tiger skins seized in Karnataka

NEW DELHI: Two leopard skins and a tiger skin have been seized in Karnataka's Chickmaglur region in two separate incidents and four people arrested in this connection, a senior Wildlife official said on Tuesday.

Member of Advisory Board of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau Kartick Satayanarayan said that in the first incident one Prakash and Hitesh were arrested from Davangire area yesterday morning after a trap was laid on the basis of a tip-off by an NGO Wildlife SOS.

A decoy customer was sent to them to purchase the tiger skin and once the deal was struck, they were arrested for alleged possession of the skin.

In the second incident, skins of two leopard cubs, one merely 60 days old, were seized, allegedly from two persons -- Dinesh (35) and Vasant (26) -- hailing from NR Pura in Chikmaglur, he said.

Initial investigations revealed that Dinesh and Vasant could have killed the leopards in the nearby Shimgra forest from Bhadra tiger reserve in the state, Satayanarayan claimed.

Cases under various sections of Wildlife Protection Act have been registered against all the accused and further investigations are on.

The sample of the seized skins have been sent to the forensic lab of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) for further tests.