The two men after their arrest with the seized articles spread before them. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar, Sept. 9: Bengal forest officials today caught two Bhutanese nationals involved in cross-border smuggling of animal parts and seized three leopard skins and two elephant jaw bones from them.

The two men were arrested from Jaigaon, a town on the India-Bhutan border. This is the first time that anyone from Bhutan has been caught here for wildlife crimes.

“During bipartite meetings, forest officials of Bhutan always claim that there are no illegal activities like felling, poaching or smuggling of animal parts on their side,” said Ujjwal Ghosh, the divisional officer of wildlife III division, which conducted the raid.

“Today’s arrests will come as an important revelation to the Bhutan forest department,” Ghosh added.

The forester said the arrested men had been identified as Tashe Wang Norbu and Pema Loday. “Both are from Bhutan.”

They will be produced in court tomorrow, said Ghosh.

Today, acting on a tip-off, a 16-member team from the Jaldapara East and West ranges reached Jaigaon market around 1pm. Niranjana Mitra, the assistant wildlife warden of Jaldapara, led the team, which included the two range officers, Ranjan Talukdar (East) and Buddhadeb Mandal (West).

The foresters had information that two Bhutanese persons would collect two bags containing animal parts from the market. So they scattered around the area and waited.

Soon, a woman was seen putting down two bags beside a road close to the market. A little later, the smugglers arrived at the scene on foot and picked up the bags and started walking towards Phuentsholling, a town adjacent to Jaigaon but located in Bhutan.

Immediately, the foresters intercepted them. “We found three leopard skins — one of an adult female, while the other two are probably of its cubs’— and the jaw bones of two elephants,” said the divisional forest officer.

The two were later brought to the office of assistant wildlife warden of Jaldapara. The woman who had put down the bags managed to escape, said Ghosh.

The divisional forest officer added: “There are a couple of spots on the skins that we suspect to be marks made by bullets. To confirm our suspicion, we are sending the articles for forensic test. The skins are new and we are trying to find out from where the parts were brought.”