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Madhya Pradesh: Kanha Tiger Reserve cracks tiger poaching case

The tiger carcass had been found in the buffer zone of Khatia range with all its paws missing on October 22.

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The site where the carcass was found.
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Forest officials from Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh managed to not only crack a tiger poaching case within a span of two days, but also arrested all the six accused involved.

According to forest officials, on October 22 they received information about a tiger carcass being found in the buffer zone of Khatia range with all its paws missing.

“When we reached the spot, we saw that all the canines of the carcass were intact. We realised that it was not the work of a professional poaching group and suspected locals to be involved. Without touching the tiger or disturbing the site around, the dog squad led us to Banjar river and we understood that the people must have entered water to escape,” informed Sanjay Shukla, Field Director of Kanha Tiger Reserve.

Back on the site, the forest officials soon saw that there was an electric line and the post mortem also showed that the tiger was killed by electrocution. “We started gathering intel and soon rounded up people for questioning from Manegaon village, which is close to the site from where the tiger was found. After several rounds of questioning, we managed to crack the case on October 24 by arresting six accused who accepted killing the tiger by mistake,” Shukla said.

“All the accused had met in the market on October 19 and planned to kill a wild pig or Chital for meat and laid out a naked wire near Manegaon forest village. At night they realised that unfortunately a Tiger had got electrocuted,” shared Shukla informing that the scared accused dragged the dead tiger in the bushes and hid it. But two of the accused Devi Singh and Chhotelal then planned to cut the legs with an idea to earn some money by selling it.

However, with news of dog squads being employed by the forest department, they feared being caught and to destroy the evidence they took the tiger's paws to an isolated place near Banjar river and set it on fire.

Later, Devi Singh took the forest department officials to the place were they had burnt the tigers paws and the remains were seized along with the electric wires from the home of another accused.

The forest department has booked all the six accused under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Meanwhile, wildlife activists praised the quick action taken by the forest officials in cracking the case.

Tiger reserves across Madhya Pradesh have been under scanner with the rising number of tigers being found dead. 

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