Sundarbans Bengal Tiger skin seized, 3 held

This STAR photo taken on December 8, 2011 shows a poacher arrested with the skin of a tiger from Mothbaria bus stand in Mothbaria upazila of Pirojpur district.

Three poachers have been held with the skin of an enormous Bengal Tiger of the Sundarbans from Bagerhat’s Morelganj upazila, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) claimed today.

Rab-8 held the three along with the 10-feet-long tiger skin and several pieces of the animal in a crackdown, Captain Hasibul Haque, spokesperson of Rab-8, told The Daily Star.

The held were Delwar Sheikh, 34, Nuruzzaman Sheikh, 52, and Kabir Hawladar, 38, - all members of a racket involved in poaching and trafficking the skin and flesh of tigers and deers hunted from the Sundarbans, the Rab official said.

“The tiger skin is 10 feet long and 4 feet wide. It was a big tiger. Also, 25 pieces of the animal – its head, tail and other body parts – were seized from them,” he added.