Sirhind trader held with silver fox skin

Fatehgarh Sahib, January 7

A team of the People for Animals (PFA) raided the shop of a garment dealer at Sirhind and seized the skin of a silver fox.

The PFA team was accompanied by wildlife protection officials and the Fatehgarh Sahib police. The police arrested the garment dealer, Gaurav Sharma, and presented him in a court, which remanded him in police custody for two days.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Punjab, RK Mishra said silver fox was a rare animal. There was a ban on the import of the skin of reptiles, chinchillas, mink and fox through a notification issued on January 3, 2017. It was governed by the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

The head of the PFA team, Mani Singh, said Gaurav of Sirhind had uploaded a video on social media for the sale of mufflers made of silver fox skin. He said this information reached Menaka Gandhi, who contacted the Fatehgarh Sahib police in this regard.

Mani Singh said his team approached the shop as customers and were able to seize the skin of the silver fox from the owner.

Upon questioning, Gaurav revealed that he had purchased the animal skin for Rs 50,000 from Ravi Bhatnagar, a resident of Ghaziabad. The PFA team said Ravi was an animal skin smuggler and had been involved in various cases in this regard.

SP (Investigation) Rakesh Yadav said the police had registered a case against Gaurav under the Wild Life Protection Act and sent the seized skin for testing to a lab in Dehradun. He said the district police had also contacted the Ghaziabad police for the arrest of Ravi Bhatnagar.