Six poachers held for killing a tiger, trying to sell skin in Jalgaon in Pune-Nagpur Customs joint operation

Pune/Jalgaon: Six poachers, including two women, were arrested for killing and trying to sell the skin of a tiger in a joint operation of the Pune and Nagpur Customs officials recently.

One of the women accused wore the big cat’s skin under her saree to evade detection. The tiger skin was seized.

The Pune Customs officials received a tip-off that a group of people were trying to sell the tiger skin in Jalgaon. They were joined by the Nagpur Customs to conduct the joint operation on the morning of July 26.

The arrested accused were identified as Ajvar Sujat Bhosale (35), Rahim Pardhi (45), Teva Bai Pardhi (40), Kakana Bai (30), Nadim Shaikh (26) and Mohammad Athar (58). They were booked under section 50 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The prime suspect was involved in the killing of the tiger. One of the accused women wore the 11-ft skin under her saree to avoid detection.

During the primary investigation, the team visited the crime scene where the tiger was skinned deep in the forest of Madhya Pradesh. The poachers identified a tiger kill (Nilgai) inside the Jalgaon division forest, poisoned the carcass, and waited for the tiger to return to feast on it.

All the six arrested accused were handed over to the Forest Department, along with the seized tiger skin, for further investigation.

It is one of the rare joint operations, where the Customs teams from Pune and Nagpur, carried out an on-ground investigation.

The Pune Customs team had earlier seized a leopard skin and a tiger trophy in the recent past.