Chhattisgarh forest officials arrest six from Odisha; tiger skin, body parts of other animals seized

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Forest officials from Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district have arrested six persons on charges of poaching from adjoining Odisha and recovered tiger skin, four live peachicks and body parts of other wild animals from them, officials said on Wednesday.

Acting on inputs, the anti-poaching team of Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve along with Odisha forest officials on June 3 took action in villages under the neighbouring state's Khariar forest range bordering the reserve, they said.

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According to Deputy Director Varun Jain of the tiger reserve, the officials first raided the house of one Badan Manjhi (45) in Khudupani village on the inter-state border and recovered a big piece of tiger skin, four peachicks, bow-arrow and other materials used in poaching.

Based on Badan's statement, five more persons Khageshwar Manjhi (62), Vidyadhar Manjhi (37), Bada Manjhi (61), Sachin Manjhi (36) and Achyutanand Manjhi (23) were searched in nearby villages and body parts of leopard, bear and other animals and a muzzle-loading gun were seized from them, he said.

As per preliminary information, Badan came across the rotten carcass of a tiger in a jungle close to his village two months back. He and other locals then chopped it and distributed the pieces among them, he said.

Tiger skin, nails and teeth recovered from Badan will be sent to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, to establish which area the big cat belonged to. Its DNA will be matched with five samples of scat (fecal droppings) of tigers sent to the WII from Udanti-Sitanadi tiger reserve in the last one-and-a-half years to ascertain whether the dead tiger belonged to the reserve, he said.

Badan told the forest personnel that six more poachers are also active in the area and efforts are on to trace them, he added.

All the accused have been handed over to the Odisha forest department for further action, said officials.

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