DEHRADUN: Leopards whose skins cost lakhs in the international market are being killed by villagers in Uttarakhand for as little as Rs 2,000 each.

This revelation was made by a bunch of poachers in the state’s Pauri district after they were arrested for felling seven of the big cats, all for Rs 14,000. Caught by a forest team after a frenetic chase last week, the villagers said they did this for some “easy money”.

The district police had seized seven leopard skins from four men who were on their way to Kotdwar to pass on the consignment to a middleman. The seizure is considered the biggest-ever in the state.

It is quite unfortunate that the accused killed the leopards to take off their skin and sell it for a petty sum of Rs 2,000 per pelt,” Khati said. “There is a great demand for leopard skin in the international market and the network starts from these villagers. There is a far bigger racket going on.”

Ramesh Chand, DFO, said he caught three more people — Sunder Singh, Dinesh Singh and Rajan Kumar — on the basis of information divulged by the villagers.

Sunder Singh of Thalisain village is a shepherd, while Dinesh Singh from the neighbouring Bengali village is a school student. Rajan from Dungri, meanwhile, is someone “who charges money for filling up application forms for clients at the tehsil”.

Chand said, “One of the accused, Rajan, killed the leopard by erecting an electric wire around his field. The others just poisoned the carcass of cattle and left it for the leopards to eat. But recovering seven leopard skins from these villages also strengthens the suspicion that villagers may have been involved in this practice for a long time.”

The DFO said leopards have become easy prey for villagers because the area is still dense with forests and the big cats are being pushed out of their natural habitat due to settlements. “What this also proves,” said Chand, “is that the villager’s theory to poison leopards to avenge the killing of their cattle by the big cats is baseless.”



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