Personnel of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) posted at the India–Nepal border apprehended two Nepali citizens on Thursday evening and seized wildlife body parts from them.

Dik Bahadur Darnal and Karna Bahadur Biswakarma, who are from Sankhuwasabha and Morang districts of Nepal, respectively, were apprehended in Panitanki, Siliguri subdivision.

According to SSB sources, the duo were intercepted during a routine border check while entering India. The security personnel recovered wildlife body parts from the duo's bags.

The seized items included three deer antlers with skulls, a deer antler, four hornbill beaks with skulls, one wild boar tusk, a snake skeleton and a goral horn.

SSB officers said that during preliminary interrogation, the accused claimed the body parts were collected from carcasses and were intended for use in certain traditional practices.

“As they failed to produce any valid documents authorising possession of these wildlife articles, they were detained and later handed over to the officers of the Tukriajhar forest range in the Kurseong forest division on Friday,” an SSB source said.

The foresters suspect that the duo were associated with a racket involved in the smuggling of wildlife parts in the region.

“The articles seized from the accused were illegally possessed, which constitutes an offence under the Wildlife Protection Act. We have initiated an investigation to identify the network involved in trafficking wildlife body parts in this area,” said Devesh Pandey, the divisional forest officer of Kurseong.

The sources said Darnal and Karna Bahadur Biswakarma were produced in a court in Siliguri and sent to judicial custody until January 8.