Disguised as customers, the forest officials recovered hefty deer antlers and arrested five traffickers from a village in East Burdwan today.
The East Burdwan divisional forest authorities received a tip-off from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau’s Eastern Regional office about the trafficking yesterday. Somnath Chowdhury, ADFO, Burdwan said, “Acting on that our officials made a recce at local Kulin village in Jamalpur PS area yesterday where the traffickers were lodged. On Thursday, with local police we raided and recovered 20 pieces of deer antelopes and booked five traffickers. Two receivers were from the Kulin village itself and the three traffickers were from Asansol.” The animals, Chowdhury said: “Were poached in Jharkhand jungles we have ascertained.”