Skin of a male leopard seized from four poachers near Hyderabad

The skin of a male leopard was seized from four poachers Monday by police at Rachakonda, about 65 km from here. They were part of eight to 10 member gang of poachers, who regularly hunted tigers as they knew the skin and nails of the animal are in high demand in the black market, an official release said.

The four on being questioned told police they had killed the two-year-old leopard and skinned it about three months ago after setting a wire trap in a forest near Srikakulam at the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border. The gang told police they had informed some other people about it and were searching for prospective customers to buy the skin for between Rs five lakh to Rs 10 lakh, the release said.

(With inputs from agencies.)