Seized leopard skin bares Palamau peril

A.S.R.P. MUKESH Poaching pawn: Amarka Singh, arrested for trying to smuggle out a leopard skin, confesses before DFO (buffer) AK Mishra on Sunday. Picture by Saikat Chatterjee Ranchi, Feb. 26: A leopard skin — roughly estimated to fetch over Rs 5 lakh in the international market — was seized from Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR) on Saturday, nearly two months after forest officials got wind of poaching in the forest and laid a trap. A villager, who was trying to strike a deal with an interstate gang of smugglers at Satbarwa on Jharkhand-Bihar border, has also been arrested. Amarka Singh (58), a native of Phulwari village in Palamau, has been charged under Section 52 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Forest officials said this was the first big seizure in more than a decade. In 1995, a tiger skin smuggling racket had been busted at the reserve. PTR divisional forest officer (buffer area) A.K. Mishra confirmed that they had been on the leopard poaching case for some eight weeks. “A couple of months ago, our informers tipped us off. However, we didn’t have authentic information on the place of poaching and people behind it. So, we decided to keep an eye on the reserve and also porous border areas,” Mishra said. Some time later, they managed to zero in on Singh who was stocking the skin. “The culprit was looking for buyers. We didn’t arrest him immediately because we wanted to seize the skin too,” he added. Divisional forest officer (core area) Premjit Anand said on Friday they learnt that a deal was to take place at Pochi village in Satbarwa. “Dressed like villagers, our raid team including rangers reached the spot early on Saturday morning and fanned out to every nook and corner of the area. Around 1pm, few vehicles without numberplates arrived at a nearby dhaba. The negotiation took place for two hours and the deal was settled for Rs 70,000. When the seller (Singh) went to get the skin, we followed and nabbed him,” Anand said. Mishra conceded that it was a conscious decision to trap only the seller. “Initially, we were a little confused about who to target. But then we decided to arrest the seller. If there is no one to sell, there will be no one to buy,” he said. Forest officials are interrogating Singh who is known to have revealed names of three accomplices. “The racket works like a chain. One person kills, second transports, third stocks, fourth sells and so on and so forth. We hope to reach the last link soon,” Mishra added. Currently, the reserve has some 80 leopards compared to more than 100 a decade ago. Admitting presence of poachers, DFO Anand said they were planning to shuffle routes of trackers (forest employees who monitor wildlife by tracking animal routes) to check the menace. “Normally, a tracker is asked to monitor the same route for four to five years. So, he may get involved with local residents (read poachers). We are now planning to revise our strategy and change their routes from time to time so that they don’t become part of any nexus,” he said. Apart from this, the forest guardians also plan to deploy 20 home guard jawans at check posts and forest pickets for frisking visitors. A senior official at Palamau reserve also pitched for young trackers. “Most trackers are over 50 years of age. They are unable to monitor the forests efficiently. Besides infrastructure development, the government should also work out special package for forest protection,” he said. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120227/jsp/frontpage/story_15183865.jsp