Huge haul of animal parts in Assam

A joint raid conducted by the police and Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB)at Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar district in Western Assam on Wednesday yielded around 630 deer antlers, indicating the presence of a major racket dealing in animal parts in the region. Nearly 3,000 kg of red sanders was also recovered in the raid. No arrests, however, were made in this connection.

The raid was carried out in Brahma Industries, a saw mill that had closed down several years ago following a Supreme Court ban on tree-felling in the North eastern region in 1996.

Gossaigaon sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Dambaru Dhar Hazarika said the raid initially led to the recovery of a sackful of antlers, but the police soon found more antlers, some intact, mostly broken, hidden under saw dust within the saw mill compound.

The police also used SSB’s sniffer dogs to conduct the raid. “While we discovered about 630 pieces, big and small, of deer antler, we also hit upon a consignment of neatly-cut wood which initially looked like red sandalwood,

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