Forest dept officials raid shop in Jammu, seize body parts of tigers

Officials of the Forest Department raided a shop here on Thursday and seized tiger claws, body parts of monitor lizards, musk deer pods among other things, a senior official said Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of the Forest Department and Forest Protection Force raided the shop at Kanak Mandi in the city, he said.

"The seized items consisted of genitals of monitor lizards, leopards, tiger claws, musk deer pods, antlers, nardostachys grandiflora (Jatamansi), pistacia integerrima (Kakad singi), White kuth, Sea shells," the officer said.

The seized items will be sent to the Wildlife institute of India (WII) in Dehradun and The Forest Research Institute for further identification of the seized items, he said.

Meanwhile, a case was registered under relevant sections of the J&K Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1978 and J&K Forest Act, 1987, he said, adding that a probe into the matter was underway.