5 held for wildlife crimes, poaching by forest officials of Odisha's Satkosia division

BHUBANESWAR/ATHAGARH: Forest officials of Satkosia division have arrested five persons in two separate cases pertaining to wildlife crimes including poaching of elephants in the region in the last 24 hours. Athagarh DFO Sudarshan Gopinath Jadav said Dhaneswar Behera alias Dhania of Satgochhia village in Badamba area of Cuttack has been arrested and forwarded to Court for his alleged involvement in the cases of poaching of male elephants for their tusks in Janipadar Beat of Badamba Range.

The carcasses of the two elephants had been exhumed by the Athagarh forest officials and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on June 14 and 27 respectively. The DFO said Dhania had been arrested earlier for his alleged involvement in the poaching of two tuskers in Badamba Range in February 2018.
On the other hand, Jadav said four more persons - Bamadeb Pradhan, Sankar Parida, Niranjan Arukha and Santosh Guru  - of Narsinghpur block have also been arrested and forwarded to the court for their involvement in poaching wild animals like deer, wild pig etc.

They had been detained in connection with a case related to the death of the injured male elephant in Narsinghpur West Range in multiple pellet injuries a few days back. Investigation into this matter is also in progress, he said.