Pallivasal (Kerala): Two persons were arrested in Pallivasal, Munnar, on Saturday, for illegal attempts to sell stuffed and mounted wild animal trophies. Mounted heads of a tiger and a leopard were seized from the accused.

The arrest was made in a quick undercover operation executed by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Kerala Forest Department and the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).

“Our informer met the two accused on Thursday. We made a fake deal to purchase the trophies for 40,000 rupees. We informed the authorities, who placed a team at the delivery site to nab the traders during the scheduled delivery,” said a WTI field investigator.

The trophies (one of which carries signature of Van Ingen, once a famous taxidermy firm based in Mysore) are believed to have been stolen by the accused, Muniappan and Kalimuthu. Authorities are investigating whether the accused possess more of these trophies.

“The recovered trophies were old. However, they are wildlife derivatives; anyone possessing these articles today, without relevant documents are defaulters as per Indian wildlife laws,” said the official