Meerut man booked for selling leopard skin

NOIDA: The Sector 20 police, on Saturday afternoon, arrested Satvir Tyagi, from Kharkhoda, Meerut, carrying two leopard skins for sale in Delhi. Tyagi told the police that the leopard skins would have fetched him Rs 2 lakh on delivery in the Capital. He has been booked under the Protection of Wildlife Act.

According to Sector 20 police station chief, Joginder Singh Malik, "Tyagi confessed to have sold 10 to 12 leopard skins in about a year. He said he used to buy each leopard pelt for Rs 60,000 from one Bharat Bhandari in Chamoli and used to forward it to another man in Delhi for Rs 1 lakh. That man, in turn, sold each pelt for Rs 2 lakh".

Experts say that there is fairly heavy poaching of leopards in Chamoli and surrounding areas. According to sources in the Wildlife Protection Society of India,"Poaching of leopards is largely being ignored while trying to protect the tiger from extinction".

lalit.kumar@timesgroup.com