Dudhwa (Uttar Pradesh) : The Forest Department officials of Dudhwa National Park arrested four persons in the South Kheri Range of the park on charges of possessing tiger parts. A tiger skin and tiger bones were seized on October 27.

According to PP Singh, Deputy Director, Dudhwa National Park, the Forest Department had received information about a person from Sansarpur area trying to sell tiger parts.

Following up on the information, a team headed by Singh and accompanied by the Range Officer, went to Sansarpur as decoy customers and arranged to meet the traders in the pretext of buying the tiger parts.

Of the seven persons who had come to sell the contrabands, three were nabbed on the night of October 27. Ram Deen, the leader of the group escaped. Not deterred, the Forest Department team doggedly pursued the case and caught up with him on October 28.

Ram Deen, a local villager, confessed in writing to killing the tiger about two and half months ago with a .12 bore gun. He claimed he was hunting deer and wild boar when he saw the tiger and killed it.

“Circumstantial evidence suggests that he is not a tiger poacher per se,” said Singh, of Deen. He had stored the tiger parts for more than two months after killing the tiger, which is very unlike experienced tiger poachers.

Legal proceedings against the accused will begin soon.

Dudhwa National Park lies along the Indo-Nepal border in the Lakhimpur-Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. Known for its Barasingha or Swamp Deer and tigers, Dudhwa was declared a National Park in 1977 and a Tiger Reserve in 1987-88. Dudhwa National Park also holds a satellite population of Greater One-horned Rhinoceros, reintroduced in 1984-85.