3 persons arrested in Similipal with melanistic tiger skin

Bhubaneswar: Three persons were arrested by Similipal Tiger Reserve authorities on Thursday for allegedly being in possession of a rare melanistic tiger skin. All three were caught in a coordinated operation carried out jointly by Similipal (south) and Baripada forest divisions.

Since it is a melanistic skin, Similipal authorities don’t rule out hunting of such a tiger in their territory, but they are yet to find out which tiger it was and when the hunting took place. The skin will be sent for laboratory examination to Wildlife Institute of India or WII, wildlife officials said.

The three persons were identified as Gangadhar Murmu, Ramdas Hembram and Bhima Baskey. “A deal was going to be sealed between the three persons and some trader/s. We had intelligence inputs about the deal and launched a crackdown. We seized the skin, three motorcycles and two mobile phones from them,” said deputy director (Similipal south) Sumit Kar.

Melanistic tigers are a rare variant of Royal Bengal Tiger with more black pigmentation/stripes on their body than the normal colour. Similipal is the only place in the world where such tigers are found in the wild.

Similipal authorities said from the external look, it does not seem to be a recent skin. “WII is the right agency to ascertain how old the skin is. Meanwhile, we are trying to ascertain from WII which tiger it was as it has a database of tigers and a software programme to match with the skin’s stripe pattern,” said Kar.

In May 2023, a male melanistic tiger was found dead in Nawna (south) range of Similipal, allegedly due to infighting.