TAMIL NADU: Tamil Nadu Forest officials and police have seized the pelt of a two-and-a-half-year-old leopard and nabbed one person in Oddanchatram here the other day.
The arrested was M. Ganesan of Gandhi Nagar in Oddanchatram.
The leopard pelt measured 4.5 feet from head to tail, and nails of the dead animal were intact.
Acting on a tip-off from Tamil Nadu Green Movement (TNGM) network in Kerala, TNGM president S. Jayachandran and forest officials in Devadhanapatti near Periyakulam set a trap to nab the accused. They acted as brokers and tried to buy the pelt from the smugglers.
Initially, a gang member called the officials to Devadhanapatti and later shifted the meeting spot to Sempatti.
When the team waited at Sempatti, the gang asked them to come to Oddanchatram.
They trapped the accused with the leopard pelt in Oddanchatram with the help of Oddanchatram police.
After preliminary investigation, the forest officials said the accused tried to smuggle the skin from The Nilgiris district and sell it to some people in Kerala.
Later, the police handed over the accused to the forest officials as the wild animal was listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act.
