Two leopard skins with skulls and three tails have been recovered by the forest department and police near a garbage vat in Creek Row in central Kolkata on Monday.
A forest department official said they received information from Muchipara police station that one of their patrolling teams had found the skins wrapped in large polythene bags dumped near a garbage vat.
“The bags were first spotted by workers of the conservancy department who collect waste from the vat. The workers called the police when they spotted the skins. The cops called us,” said the official.
A team of foresters from the Wild Animal Rescue and Transit Facility Centre in Salt Lake went to the spot and recovered the skins. They brought it back to Salt Lake where a preliminary inspection was carried out.
A senior official of the forest department said the skins had possibly been dumped by someone in a hurry as they were carelessly wrapped in the bags.
“Generally, these are worth a fortune in the illegal black market where skins and organs of wild animals are bought and sold. This is the reason why those who want to sell such things tend to be very careful so that they don’t get damaged,” said the official.
An initial inspection has revealed that the skins are likely to be quite old and were possibly to be strung up like trophies, a forester said.
“There were two skins. One of them seems to be of an adult leopard and measures 211cm from head to tail and the other is likely to belong to a sub-adult, measuring 172cm. The larger skin had the skull portion intact but the smaller one did not have the skull attached to it. We also found three tails in the packet,” said the official.
The skins had sharp incisions and cuts in multiple places and have worn out badly in many places, too, the official said.
Many residents of the city and its outskirts have wildlife trophies handed down through generations, a forest official said. According to the wildlife protection act, possession of such trophies needs a certificate issued by the chief wildlife warden of the state.
