A notorious wildlife trafficker, from Kanpur and his associate from Guna, who were involved in trading of hides of leopards and tigers and also scales of pangolins in the international market have been arrested by Wildlife sleuths of Madhya Pradesh.
The Madhya Pradesh STF (Wildlife) arrested Shamim from Kanpur and Raghuvir from Guna on February 5, a official said.
"On being interrogated, Shamim revealed that he traded the hides of leopards, tigers and scales of pangolins, hair and nails of wildlife animals in the international market through Tibet and Nepal," a public relations department officer said.
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"Shamim admitted that he has been in contact with several international traffickers. He used to purchase wildlife trophies from the poachers of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan," he added.
The officer said that the information about Shamim and Raghuvir was received when the STF interrogated Badrilal and Mansingh, both resident of Bhirukhedi under Narsinghgarh, who were caught with wildlife trophies including sand boa snake, hyena's tail, and equipments of poaching.
STF had caught Raghuvir from Gwalior on the charges of trading scales of pangolins during last year.
"In 1989 also, Forest Department had recovered about 100 skins of tigers and bears from Raghuvir. Rajasthan police had also registered a case of trafficking of tiger's skin against Raghuvir in 2005," the official informed.
Shamim was also caught by Uttar Pradesh STF in 2001 with 24 skins of leopard and one skin of tiger along with 10 nails. In 2004 again, he was arrested with 456 nails of tigers and leopards, the officer added.
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