Shimla, January 30, 2011: Three suspected wildlife traders were nabbed and booked under various sections of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 in Chaupal (Himachal Pradesh) on Friday for possessing wildlife goods including one leopard skin, two leopard skulls, about 11 kgs of leopard bones, 13 leopard claws and seven canines.

The seizure, conducted by a special team of the Himachal Pradesh Police Force, was assisted by the Wildlife Trust of India's enforcement team members who had been tracking the suspects - Sohan Lal, Basti Lal and Sohan Singh for over two months.

This is the third major seizure of illegal wildlife articles in the state in this month.

“Leopards are hunted in Himachal Pradesh and the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand by opportunistic hunters and seasoned wildlife criminals,” says Jose Louies, who heads WTI’s Enforcement Team. “There is a demand for skin and bones in traditional Chinese medicine and it is considerably easy to smuggle out the goods from both  these states to China through Tibet or Nepal.”