A gang of poachers involved in killing of a tiger near Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary was busted by the forest officials here on Friday with the arrest of five persons. The team arrested kingpin of the gang, Harchand, a tribal, and others and recovered chopped two fore paws of the tiger from their possession.
The detainees have admitted to have severed the paws to sell it to people engaged in black magic. An eight-year-old tiger was found dead with severed paws near Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary in Raisen district on Wednesday. CCF (Bhopal) Dr SP Tiwari said informed that a tribal Harchand and his gang were arrested on Friday. The gang admitted to have axed the tiger paws for black magic purpose, said the official.
The forest department team has recovered tiger paws. The team is interrogating them to find how the tiger was killed and whether the big cat was only killed for paws only as its skin and fangs — for which tigers are generally poached — were intact. Meanwhile, the department has intensified the vigil in Kerwa, Kaliasot and Samardha areas.
On Thursday five persons practicing black magic were booked in connection with tiger’s death. Forest department team had also recovered claws of peacock from house of a black magic practitioner, however nothing related to tiger was found. Informing about the search operation underway for last two days, Tiwari said that there were clear indication that the big cat might have been killed for witchcraft as its two front paws were chopped off and hair around tail and eye lashes was missing. Secondly, there was no any trace of poisoning in the water bodies in the vicinity where tiger was found dead, so the poison angle was totally ruled out.
Thirdly, there was no injury mark on body which would have led to its death. All these clearly indicate that the tiger was killed for black magic purpose. Our team intensified the hunt and finally, we succeeded in cracking the gang involved in the killing of the tiger. Further interrogations are on to find out the exact cause of the death of the Tiger, said the officer.
