Assam police arrest six-member poacher and illegal wildlife trader gang, recover a rhino horn
They also recovered a rhino horn from the gang.
Based on intelligence input provided by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, a Nagaon police team led by DSP Samiran Baishya had launched an operation at by-pass road near Nagaon town and arrested the accused from a roadside eatery.
Police also seized a rhino horn weighing around a kilogram, two motor cycles, mobile handsets, and drugs in possession of the accused.
The arrested poacher and illegal wildlife trader gang members were identified as Baharul Islam, Jubed Ali, Abdul Matlib, Shahidur Rahman, Arun Saikia and Ranjan Jyoti Saikia.
A top police official alleged that two poachers, Arun Saikia and Ranjan Jyoti Saikia, hailed from Upper Assam's Jorhat district and had carried the rhino horn for selling it to the other arrested persons.
"Arun and Ranjan has tried to sell the horn with dealing of an amount of Rs 22 lakh. But we had managed to intercept it and caught them," the top Assam cop said.
Interrogation is going on for further details.
Assam has lost over 250 one-horned rhino in the state in the past decade to poaching.
An official of the state forest department said that per kilogram horn sold in international market is worth Rs 2-2.5 crore.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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