Eight out of 15 seized nails belong to Asiatic lions

Rajkot: The forest officials seized 11 more nails of wild animals from the three men arrested on Saturday. This takes the total number of nails seized to 15.
The forensic report on Monday also confirmed that the eight nails were of the endangered Asiatic lion, while seven others belonged to leopard, which is also a Schedule-I species under the Wild Life Protection Act.

One of the accused was released after interrogation as forest officials did not find his involvement in the animal parts smuggling racket.

Eleven more nails were found from Pania village of Dhari taluka in Amreli district, about 20km from Dalkhania where 23 lions had died recently due to virus infection and other reasons. The nails were found during search operation at the home of one of the accused.

On Friday evening, the forest officials had arrested Danabhai Garaniya and Jilubhai Kamaliya from Bhavnagar when they were trying to sell four leopard nails as those of lion’s. Both are residents of Raydi village in Talala taluka of Gir Somnath district. Based on Garaniya’s information forest officers arrested Kanubhai Vala from Pania village in Dhari taluka of Amreli district. Vala had given the nails to Garanyia to sell as he was in need of money and Kamaliya had only accompanied him. Kamaliya was released after interrogation on Monday.

On searching Vala’s house, forest officials found 11 nails of which eight were that of lion. Vala lives in the village bordering Gir forest and has good relations with forest employees like foresters and trackers.

Deputy conservator of forest Sandeep Kumar told TOI, “It seems Vala was an opportunist and had collected the nails to sell it later. However, this too amounts to crime under the Wildlife Protection Act.” He added, “Vala has in the past sold some nails to people 4-5 years back, but we are yet to get the names. These people seem to be neophyte. But we cannot rule of involvement of an organized racket.”

The investigation in the case has been handed over to Gir East forest division from Bhavnagar as the nails were from Pania that falls under Gir East.

Forest department sources said that Vala was in contact with forest officials and also suspect that some forest employees may be involved in the racket. Vala has been maintaining that he collected the nails from carcasses of dead animals.

The value of the one nail is estimated to be around Rs 5-10 lakh in the domestic market while in international markets like China and South East Asian countries, it could be more, said forest officials.