The forest department officials on Monday busted a chameleon trading racket in Bhubaneswar. Officials of Bhubaneswar Range and Mancheswar Range carried out a joint raid and arrested two persons. The accused duo was striking a deal for Rs 1.5 lakh to sell a chameleon when they were arrested near Vani Vihar area. Both the wildlife criminals hail from Jagatsinghpur. They are Rashmi Ranjan Das and Khirod Mohanty.
There were instances that the exotic animals seized in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh smuggled from Myanmar and ferried through Mizoram to these states.
Since 2020, the task force has seized 24 elephant tusks and arrested several wildlife criminals involved in the illegal trade.
Leopard Skin Seized By Wildlife Officials; 7 Arrested
So far, the STF has seized 25 leopard skins, 13 elephant tusks, seven deer skins, 11 pangolin, 19.5 kg of pangolin scales, two leopard teeth, 29 leopard claws, 46 wild parrots and arrested 58 wildlife criminals.
This is said to be the first ever conviction of wildlife smugglers in the State secured by the Special Task Force (STF), a specialised wing of Odisha Police set up to curb the organised crime.
The Special Task Force of the Odisha Crime Branch on Thursday arrested two people on charges of smuggling deer skins in Puri district.
During the search, an elephant tusk weighing about 3.35 kg and some other incriminating materials have been recovered from his possession.
On the basis of reliable information, the STF team conducted a raid on the service road of NH-16 in between Gurujanga and Pitapalli, Khordha about transporting/deal of wildlife and caught two people red-handed with a live pangolin.
Officials of Hirakud Wildlife Division with help of the Sambalpur district police arrested a 37-year-old man on charges of illegal trade of wildlife articles.
By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Forest and police officials face a big challenge with wildlife smuggling in Odisha going hi-tech. Officials who busted a pangolin smuggling racket recently discovered to their surprise that deals were being made online with criminals operating through WhatsApp groups. The same pattern is obviously being followed for the smuggling of other […]
Nuapada: After a brief lull, leopard skin smuggling has once again come back to haunt Odisha. A joint team of Chhattisgarh police and Odisha Forest department arrested a person on charges of leopard skin trade in Indagaon near Nuapada on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border. The accused has been identified as Sanjay Bag, a resident of Nangalbod village […]
Jajpur: In another major crackdown on wildlife smugglers, Jajpur Forest Division sleuths busted a wildlife smuggling racket and arrested two persons in this connection from Bhikipur Reserve Forest area under Jajpur Road police limits in this district on Tuesday. Antlers, tusks and rarest chameleon were seized from their possession. Acting on a tip-off, the forest […]
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