Two persons arrested with leopard hide in Darjeeling

Darjeeling: Two persons, arrested in Darjeeling with a leopard hide, was produced at the Darjeeling court on Monday and remanded to 14 days of judicial custody.

Pranesh Subba (27 years) of Ramji Bustee and Anant Tamang (23 years) of Rangbhang Bustee were arrested on Monday morning by the Forest department and a leopard hide recovered from their possession.

The forest department claimed that the two had killed the leopard at Rangbhang area and had buried the carcass near the Rangbhang river around 4 months ago.

The area is under the Sukhipokhari block on the Indo-Nepal border.

"Based on the tip-off we conducted a raid in the area. The skull of the leopard was recovered from the near the river while the hide was recovered from the Ramji Bustee. During interrogation they duo revealed that Pranesh had hit the leopard on the head with an iron rod and killed it," said Swapan Hingmang, Range Officer, Singhalila National Park.

The forest officials are not sure as to what plan the duo had for the hide.

"We are conducting awareness programmes and educating the villagers that killing wildlife is an offence. We have asked them to inform us of such incidents. We are planning to print pamphlets in Nepali stating that killing of wild animals is punishable. In case of sighting of such animals they should inform the forest department. Contact numbers will also be provided," said the Ranger.