Fish smuggler caught with endangered fish in Kaziranga

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 6, 2024

Forest personnel in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) caught a person involved in the smuggling of endangered fish, after a brief face-off with him from inside the national park on Friday.

According to the director of KNPTR Sonali Ghosh, the seized fish are highly endangered fish and highly-priced and found only in Orang and Kaziranga.

The smuggler who was identified as Moon Ali (38), who was injured after a rubber bullet hit his hand was shifted to Jorhat Medical College Hospital for treatment on Saturday.

The KNPTR authorities have registered an offence case number KR/04 of 2024 on April 5 against him under section 9, 27, 29, 31, 39& 52, read with 2 (16) of Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972and punishable under section 51 of Wildlife (Protection) (Assam Amendment) Act 2009.

 According to an official statement, the KNPTR authorities said: “A patrol party detected six unknown persons near Goroimari APC area under Kaziranga Range of Eastern Assam Wildlife Division on Friday at around 1.14 pm. Immediately, they approached them but they immediately fled away from the place of detection.” 

“A combined operation was carried out in search of the gang and at around 2.30 pm, the team detected two persons inside the thick cover of elephant grass. They approached those men, and one of the unknown persons again fled away from the place, even the team asked him to stop but he did not respond,” the statement said. 

“One of the unknown persons attacked forest guard Jitu Gonok from behind and as a result, he fell on the ground. Meanwhile, the unknown persons tried to attack Jitu Gonok with a dao but immediately another forest guard fired one round from his pump action gun in self-defence and the rubber-bullet got hit the left hand of the accused,” the statement also said. 

“The forest team caught him and later he was identified as Moon Ali (38) originally from Tinisukia and present address is son of Mirka Sim Ali of number 2 Kohora village under Bokakhat police station,” it said. 

“During the search, the forest team found 6 live and 1 dead Pipli Seng fish (Channa barca) which is under schedule II, Part E (9) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 and Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act 2022 at nearby the place of occurrence and immediately seized those fish,” it also said. 

One dao,1 plastic bag,1 plastic water bottle and 1 plastic Jar were also recovered from his possession.

 Moon Ali was charged with illegal entry with weapons, habitat destruction, and hunting of scheduled animals in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Apart from, the forest case, an FIR has been lodged in the Kohora Police Outpost in this connection.