Ritika
Nagpur. The number of accused in the case of tiger hunting in the Pawni buffer forest area of Pench Tiger Reserve is increasing continuously. The Forest Department team arrested Jitendra Varkhade, the 7th accused of the gang, on Tuesday evening. Tiger’s skull and teeth have been recovered from him. He will be produced before First Class Judicial Magistrate, Ramtek on Wednesday and taken on remand. In view of the possibility of absconding of the accused and the help of some people in hiding the evidence, the Melghat cyber cell is being contacted again to get other information about the phone of the accused.
Significantly, on January 12, the body of a tiger was recovered from a pond in the Pench Tiger Reserve. Forest officials found some parts of the tiger missing in the investigation. In this case 4 accused were arrested. After that, on January 27, success was achieved in arresting two other accused Nago Uike and Parmeshwar Idapachi.
The manner in which the number of accused is increasing in this incident, it seems that the gang members are connected with national or international smugglers. Although Forest Department officials say that at present there is no clue of involvement of national or international gang, but in which direction the further investigation will go, it cannot be said. He says that incidents of tiger hunting are happening due to superstition. In this matter, under the guidance of Deputy Director Prabhunath Shukla, Assistant Conservator of Forests Atul Devkar, Jayesh Tayde and STPF employees are investigating.
