The Special Task Force (STF) of State police on Friday arrested two wildlife criminals and seized five deer skins from their possession during a raid in Balipatna under Khordha forest division jurisdiction.
The accused identified as Krushna Chandra Swain and Sunil Kumar Palei were booked under relevant sections of the wildlife protection act, 1972 and were handed over to the forest department for judicial remand, the STF officials said.
Since 2020, STF in a special drive to curb wildlife offences has seized as many as 21 numbers of leopard skins, 12 elephant tasks, 7 deer skins, 8 live pangolin and 15 kg pangolin scales while as many as 50 wildlife criminals were put behind bars.