New Delhi: In yet another seizure of animal skins, the Uttaranchal police, with the help of a Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) informer, seized skins of a snow leopard and a common leopard in Pithoragarh.The police arrested a Kalyan Singh Mehra on 28th August, 2003 after the informer trapped him acting as a decoy customer with the skins. This seizure is considered unusual because the species has become rare in this part of Uttaranchal.

WTI’s involvement with the enforcement authorities across the country, especially at wildlife trade sensitive areas, has been developing through the years. Of the many periodic workshops and seminars that the Wild Enforcement program of the WTI keeps organizing for the judiciary and other enforcement officials, the last one was held at Pithoragarh on 6th July. It was attended by the District Judge, District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, Mr. Vijay Bhatia, besides many other customs officials.

The WTI team was accompanied by Mr. Prasanna Yonzon, CEO, Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN) who, attended the workshops and visited customs check posts between Nepal and India at Jhulaghat and Dharchula for a one-to-one interaction with customs officials at this sensitive border with Nepal.

Dharchula has traditionally been the main transit point for wildlife derivatives going to Tibet via Nepal and of shahtoosh raw wool coming from Tibet.