Leopard skin seized from Tollygunge area

Kolkata: The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in joint operation with Wildlife Crime Control Unit (WCCU) under the state Directorate of Forest seized a leopard skin from Tollygunge area in south Kolkata and arrested two persons in this connection. Two motorbikes have also been recovered from the two arrested persons .

"We had specific intelligence input on the basis of which our team posed as prospective buyers and caught the duo red handed near ITI College at Tollygunge. A wildlife offence case has been registered by the WCCU, West Bengal Forest Directorate," said Agni Mitra, Regional Deputy Director (Eastern Region), WCCB .

The two arrested persons are Jitendra Mahato alias Shankar (29) and Pintu Mahato (22) are brothers and residents of Sukanta Pally in Haridevpur. The duo have claimed during interrogation that they had purchased the skin from a person in Kolkata .

Leopards are not found in south Bengal and the WCCB officials are not ruling out that the skin may be brought from neighbouring states like Jharkhand, Bihar.

Wildlife Conservationist Joydip Kundu said that the wildlife laws should be made more stringent so that those involved in wildlife crime are punished severely.