Police stationed at Kakani, in the course of regular security check on Saturday evening seized five skins of Royal Bengal tiger and seven bags of tiger parts from a van (Ba 2 Kha 750). The van was heading for Rasuwa border to cross over to Tibet, police said. [break]
Police have indentified those arrested along with the contraband items as Sukbahadur Tamang of Chilime VDC-5 and Nakul Tamang of Gatlang VDC-5 of Rasuwa district. According to police, Sukbahadur is the owner of the confiscated van and Nakul is the driver.
According to the chief of District Police Office Nuwakot, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Deepak Kharel, the tiger skins were hidden under rice sacks and the plastic bags containing tiger parts were stacked in the corners of the van. Both the van and the confiscated tiger parts have been handed over to District Forests Office, Rasuwa on Sunday morning, informed Kharel."Since the case involves wild animals parts, the District Forest Office will look into the matter," said Kharel.
Kharel informed they were able to nab the smugglers after being alerted by special sources. "The tiger parts were hidden behind 110 sacks of rice inside the van," said Kharel.
Police said both the arrested have confessed that they were lured into smuggling with promise of handsome monetary reward. "An unidentified man, who hired our van from Bouddha of Kathmandu promised to pay Rs 100,000, if we transported the tiger parts to Shyaprubesi checkpoint in Rasuwa. He had promised to pay the amount at the checkpoint," said Sukbahadur. Sukbahadur also told police that they had had left for Shyaprubesi with the tiger parts at around 4 in the evening.
This is the first time smugglers have used Rasuwa checkpoint for smuggling animal parts to Tibet, informed Kharel.“This case shows that this route has developed as a major smuggling route," said Kharel.
Twenty six various species including the Royal Bengal tiger, elephants and rhinocerous have been listed as endangered and highly protected species in the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2029.
"Anyone found smuggling the parts of these animals faces jail term between 5-15 years and fine between Rs 50,000-100,000," said Pramod Bhattarai, assistant forest warden at DFO Rasuwa.
Police informed that before this case, smugglers were smuggling contraband items to Tibet using the districts in farwestern Nepal. On November 17 last year, police at Gagabagar checkpoint in Darchula district had arrested five smugglers along with four sacks of tiger skin and bones.
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