Sambalpur, August 28: Three poachers were arrested with seizure of leopard meat and hide from their possession in Sambalpur district of Odisha on Tuesday.
The arrested have been identified as Jay Mahananda, Prafulla Barla and Kumar Topno.
“Three poachers were caught red-handed while they were de-skinning and cooking leopard meet in Hiraloi village near Landakot reserve forest under Rairakhol forest division in Sambalpur district yesterday, said Rairakhol DFO, Arvind Mohanty.
The forest personnel also seized one country-made gun, five lead bullets, horns, sharp objects and few other wildlife articles from their possession.
The poachers were cooking leopard meat when a forest team on the direction of Rairakhol DFO, Arvind Mohanty raided the houses of Topno in the Hiraloi village.
“The killed leopard was about 10-year-old. They had already de-skinned it when the team reached there and were cooking the meat. There are more people involved in this crime and efforts are on to nab them,” said the DFO.
