Police recovered four deer heads and 60 kilograms of venison and arrested three poachers in Rampal upazila of Bagerhat early yesterday.
An engine boat, which carried the poachers and the deer remains to Darogabari canal in Rampal Sadar union, was also seized.
Of the arrested, Farid Gazi, 25, and Md Saiful Gazi, 24, are of Belai village and Md Nasir Uddin Sheikh, 48, is of Pipul Bunia village in the upazila.
Under interrogation, they confessed to trading tiger skin alongside poaching deer.
After a tip-off, police ambushed the poachers near the canal when the boat anchored there, said Abdul Karim, an assistant sub-inspector of Rampal Police Station.
The poachers went to the upazila from the Sundarbans taking the river way and were preparing to go to Bagerhat and Khulna through the Khulna-Mongla highway, the ASI said.
Sensing police presence, at least three other associates who were aboard the trawler managed to flee the scene, Karim added.
The poachers told the interrogators they went to the Sundarbans three days ago and hunted four deer and preserved the heads and venison with ice.
They also rented a nosimon, a local human hauler, to pick them up from the bank of the canal. But the driver left the scene with the vehicle sensing presence of law enforcers, police quoted the poachers as saying.
The poachers left the deer skins with their associates in the Sundarbans.
A case was filed with the local police station in this connection.
Farid Gazi told police they have long been involved in wild animal hunting. He and his associates hunted a tiger in June. Later, its skin was sold to a man from Satkhira at Tk 35,000.
On February 17, forest officials arrested a poacher, Jamal Fakir, along with four tiger skulls, 138 bones and hides of two adult tigers and one adult tigress in Sharankhola upazila of Bagerhat.
Jamal claimed to work for Julfikar Group, one of the four notorious poacher gangs operating in Sharankhola and Chandpai ranges of the Sundarbans.
Source : The Daily Star
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