The additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Alipurduar on Monday sentenced nine persons to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for wildlife crimes registered under the Jaldapara wildlife division.

The court slapped a fine of ₹50,000 each on the nine.

Ejajul Hauke, Sekandar Ali and Babla Barman were convicted of illegal possession and trade of hog deer antlers.

On August 17, 2020, Biswajit Bisoi, a range officer posted in the division, raided the Rangalibazna area near NH31C in Jalpaiguri district and seized 13 hog deer antlers, timber logs, a bike and a car. The trio were arrested during the raid.

In a separate case, Manik Hossain Sarkar, Manirul Haque, and Asraf Hossain, all residents of Dakshin Shibkata under the jurisdiction of Samuktala police station in Alipurduar district, were convicted of trading live tokay geckos.

On December 23, 2019, Arup Kar, another range officer, had seized three live tokay geckos from the trio.

In another case, Kailash Baraik was convicted of the possession and cooking of barking deer meat and antlers.

In March, the Lankapara forest range officers raided the Ramjhora tea estate and seized cooked deer meat, a deer antler and internal organs of the animal from Baraik.

In the fourth case, Bikash Chandra Barman and Arup Gupta were convicted of illegal trafficking of a live pangolin, one of the most trafficked mammals in the world.

On August 29, 2019, range officer Dhiraj Kami led a raid in Sonapur under the jurisdiction of Alipurduar police station and seized a live pangolin from the duo.

Parveen Kaswan, the divisional forest officer of Jaldapara wildlife division, said the convictions would send a strong message against wildlife crimes.