The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has issued a red-alert concerning the outer areas of Tiger Reserves including tiger bearing areas, based on credible inputs received by the bureau and revelations of the recent seizures that the organized hunting gangs are seen active around various Tiger Reserves.

This comes after Guwahati police along with Wildlife NGO held four Haryana-based people from a rented house in Dharapur locality last Wednesday and seized a nine-foot-long tiger skin and around 18kg bones from their possession.

The skin is believed to have come from Chandrapur district in Maharashtra and was to be smuggled to Myanmar through a trader from Meghalaya’s Shillong.  

Of the four accused held, two were women. The accused have been identified as Ramu Das (40) from Samalkha in Panipat, and Om Prakash (45), Maya Devi, and Rajwati, all from Pinjore in Haryana.

In an official memorandum, the additional director, WCCB, New Delhi, HV Girisha has directed the field directors in Tiger Reserves especially Satpura- Madhya Pradesh, Tadoba- Maharashtra, Pench- Madhya Pradesh, Corbett- Uttrakhand, Amangarh- Uttar Pradesh, Pilibhit- Uttar Pradesh, Valmiki- Bihar, Rajaji- Uttrakhand and Tiger bearing forest pockets in Balaghat- Madhya Pradesh, Gadchiroli- Maharashtra and Chandrapur- Maharashtra to immediately intensify the patrolling, visit the identified sensitive areas, look for the suspected nomadic people in tents, temples, railway stations, bus stations, abandoned buildings, public shelter places, inform the officials of all the police stations concerned.

Meanwhile, on being questioned about any potential poaching and wildlife trade threat to Tigers in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, DFO Ramesh Kumar Gogoi told Pratidin Time, “I don't see any tiger poaching threat in Kaziranga as no notable poaching incidents have been reported here, of late, yet, accidental death cases of Tigers have come to the fore on couple of occasions. In Assam, we have a greater threat of poaching rhinos than tigers."