Gujarat: Leopard skin, nails seized in Valsad, 7 held

Valsad: Seven people have been arrested following the recovery of a leopard skin and nails in Gujarat’s Valsad district, a forest department official said on Sunday. They allegedly removed the skin and nails of a dead leopard and the two accused were caught while trying to sell it on Friday when a team from the Wildlife Crime Control Office (WCCB) and the local forest department arrested them. Market by imaginary customers, forest of Kaprada. Officer Ankit Patel said. He said the other accused were arrested from different towns in Kaprada forest district on the same day in an operation jointly conducted by the WCCB and the forest department. The leopard’s corpse was found in a property owned by one of the accused, the officer said, who then consulted other accused and called a curandera, who suggested removing the cat’s skin and nails for use in rituals. , The accused did this to sell body parts of animals for rituals and to earn money and they were searching for customers when the WCCB team received the alert, he said. He said that the accused also include two former sarpanches (heads) of different villages. They are registered on the basis of various sections of the law (for protection of wild life).