Assam police recovered sixteen tiger teeth in Karbi Anglong’s Diphu area leading to the arrest of four poachers in connection to the smuggling of animal organs on Wednesday.
According to several media reports, police headquarters in Guwahati said the four were arrested during an operation launched by police based on intelligence inputs about the movement of some suspected poachers. The four suspected poachers were caught with the tiger teeth at Birla under Diphu police station in Karbi Anglong district, about 500 km from Guwahati.
“All four are suspected to be involved in smuggling of animal parts. An investigation is underway to divulge further details from them,” said an official.
Police said they suspected the four to be smugglers of rhino horns as Karbi Anglong shares a border with the Kaziranga National Park, the home to the largest number of one-horned rhinos. Poaching of rhinos is a serious concern in Assam, particularly.
In December 2018, Kaziranga National Park authorities arrested seven poachers during an operation at Bokakhat in Golaghat district and had recovered a huge quantity of tiger skin, bones, nails and teeth of Royal Bengal tigers in a Tata Magic on National Highway 37.
The divisional forest officer of Kaziranga National Park claimed that the teeth were meant for sale and suspect the tiger was killed in the dense forests of Karbi Anglong.
