Berhampur: Forest personnel on Tuesday arrested three persons for allegedly possessing the organs of different wild animals along with firearms at Gudari under Phulbani wildlife division.
The accused were identified as Prabhat Mallick (35) of Dadaki, Trinath Kanhar (56) of Pakadamba and Sanjay Mallick (44) of Gmurikhola in Kandhamal district.
“A leopard skin, one pair of barking deer horn, a loaded country-made gun, around 100 grams of gun powder, 181 gram lead, two motorcycles, one hand saw and one power saw, some planks and three mobile phones were seized from them,” said Prasant Patel, divisional forest officer (DFO), Phulbani.
The accused were caught by a forest team while they were waiting for buyers to sell the leopard skin and barking deer horn near the airstrip at Gudari on Monday afternoon. During the search, they found the wild animal organs along with firearms from them, he said. Some other articles have also been seized from their houses during raids conducted after they were trapped. He said probe is on to find out from where they procured the wild animal organs, buyers and their involvement in poaching of the leopard and barking deer. In July, forest personnel busted a gang allegedly involved in wildlife trade by arresting six persons from Tikabali range. Two leopard skins, six barking deer skins, two skins of monitor lizards, and skulls of leopard and barking deer were seized from them.

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