Guwahati, June 24: West Bengal forest officials arrested a Manipur resident from Naxalbari in the Darjeeling district on Saturday evening and the horn of a one-horned rhino was seized from his possession.

The arrested person has been identified as Ajit Singh.

This is not the first time that residents of Manipur have been found involved in rhino poaching, as there have been several persons from the state who have been accused of rhino poaching. Persons from Nagaland have been found involved too.

According to forest officials, Ajit Singh was trying to smuggle the horn to Nepal and is suspected to be a member of a racket involved in the smuggling of wild animal parts.

Talking to reporters, Devesh Pandey, divisional forest officer of Kurseong said the seized horn was around eight inches long and weighs around 1.25 kilos.

“We have received a tip-off from Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) that a person was trying to smuggle a rhino horn to Nepal through the international border. We deployed a team from the Tukuriajhar forest range at the Hatighisa area of Naxalbari. In the evening, as Ajit reached the spot, we nabbed him,” said Pandey.

He added, “Preliminary probe suggests that Ajit was trying to smuggle the wildlife parts to Nepal and from there, it was supposed to be sent to China. In China, rhino horn has huge demand as it is used in traditional medicines,”.

In January this year, a Manipur-based shooter was hired by a gang of poachers to kill two rhinos in Kaziranga National Park.

This was revealed following the arrest of a poacher who was arrested by Bokakhat police in connection with the killing of two rhinos inside the park on January 21.

On May 21 this year, three dreaded rhino poachers were arrested for involvement in rhino poaching within Assam’s Kaziranga National Park.

The poacher has been identified as Amar Choudhury alias Harilal Choudhury, Gunakanta Doley and Achinta Morang alias Empe Morang.

Last year, CBI arrested a person from Dimapur in Nagaland for procuring the horn of a rhino, which was killed in neighbouring Assam’s Karbi Anglong district by poachers in 2012. The CBI had filed a chargesheet in March 2018 against five accused for their alleged involvement in the rhino poaching case. Raidang Engti, a resident of Dimapur came up during the investigation but he was absconding.

Also Read: Tripura: 9 Bangladeshi nationals nabbed at Agartala Railway station

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