Guwahati: In a crackdown against wildlife crime, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials seized tiger skin and bones and arrested three persons from Itakhola in Sonitpur district along Assam-Arunachal border.
A joint team intercepted and confiscated a tiger skin and a set of tiger bones, exposing a thriving illegal trade in endangered wildlife.
On examining the skin, it has been suspected that the big cat was a Royal Bengal Tiger.
Of the three arrested, two are from Assam and one from Arunachal Pradesh.
It is not clear whether the tiger was poached or died of natural death. Investigation has been going on to unearth the truth.
“Illegal wildlife trade is an international issue and most of the time, animals killed for their body parts are smuggled to several South Asian countries including China and Vietnam. Most of the times, the poacher killed the tigers for its bones and skin later it was sold in other countries with high demand,” said a source.
Sources claimed that illicit wildlife trade has been rampant in the Arunachal Pradesh. Smuggling of valuable trees and endangered species has been going on unabated in the state but the concerned department has become a mute spectator.
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