On 24th night, I left for Jammu from Delhi and reached Jammu at 4:30 pm the next day. From Jammu bus station, I took a bus to Udhampur. I reached Udhampur at 6:30 pm to meet Major XXXX and YYYYY at the Army Headquarter in Udhampur. They introduced me to Ramlal Singh, Driver, who was, since a long time, in touch with traders involved in wildlife trade. According to Ramlal Singh’s information a trader named Sadanand is working with J & K Police . Sadanand;s brother Ram was also found to be playing a role in Sadanand illegal wildlife trade business. I was informed that Ramalal Singh has introduced himself already to the leopard skin trader. He has pretended to be a person working in the army who wants to buy a couple of leopard skins to keep in army officer’s mess.
On the next day, that is, on 25th December 08, at 6:00 am I left for Dodo along with Ramlal Singh and a driver who belonged to the army. Dodo is 110 km from the Army headquarter on Suth Mahadev Road. As the road was in a very poor condition, it took 7 hours for us to reach Dodo. We went to the poacher’s house and Ramlal Singh introduced me to the poacher as Major Amit Raghvan. We had lunch at the poacher’s place following which he showed us 2 leopard skins which were kept away from his house on the tree. After seeing the material I gave Rs 1,000 to the trader as advance payment for the skins. After a long discussion with Sadanand, I convinced him to deliver the skins at Jakhad which is 3 km away from Dodo.
I returned to the army head quarter, Udhampur at 9:00 pm and discussed the developments with YYYYY. As Col. was not willing to provide army support for the operation, I contacted Wildlife Department of Jammu. He told me to coordinate with the local ranger of Suth Mahadev, . I called the the Ranger and fixed a meeting with him for the next morning without giving him any vital information about the location or material.
I set out for Suth Mahadev on 26th December morning from Udhampur by taxi. At 9:30 am I reached Ranger’s Office at Suth Mahadev . There I explained the plan to the Ranger, and his staff. I told them very clearly that nobody should wear uniform. At 10:30 am, We started from Suth Mahadev to Jakhad along with five forest guards and the Ranger. Ranger was coming in a separate vehicle along with five forest guards. Before reaching Jakhad I again explained the plan to them and told them that they should wait at least 1 km before the delivery location and when I give them a missed call, they should arrive at the spot with the enforcement team (Ranger and Five guards) team. But I noticed that without informing me the Ranger had picked up a staff from a village on our way who was in uniform. I was in constant touch with the trader. At 1:10 pm, I reached Jakhad where I found Sdanand waiting for me. He was standing on the road with a friend and his brother was sitting on the top of a hillock with the material. When I reached there he saluted me and asked for cash. I told him to bring the material. Sadanand gave signal to his brother Ram who was sitting at the hillock to bring the material down. While Ram was coming down with the material, at the same time Dhyan Chand arrived there with his team. He stopped 10m away from us. Sadanand suspected me immediately [Since this place is a very remote one, a four wheeler is generally not seen in this area.]. Noticing the ranger’s vehicle, Sadanand immediately signaled to his brother not to come down with the material. He himself also ran away into the mountains. I could have run behind him, but I thought in that way I would have confirmed his suspicion and no possibility of contacting the trader again would be there.
From the top of the mountain Sadanand saw a person coming out of the ranger’s vehicle in uniform. Sadanand called me and said that, “You are trying to arrest us, so we won’t be able to deliver you the material, please leave this place”. I waited there for an hour and tried to contact Sadanand and his brother. I also told the ranger to leave towards Dodo and not to come back until I call them. I saw the ranger moving off to Dodo in his vehicle.
Although Ramlal Singh was not with us but he was also constantly in touch with the trader. Me and Ramlal Singh tried our best to explain to Sadanand that the vehicle has nothing to do with us. After 45 minutes of arguing he agreed to deliver the material again to me. Nandlal called me alone to collect the material at Nala, which is around 1km before Jakhad. I did the same and left the vehicle there itself and walked towards Nala. I and Sadanand were talking over the phone constantly and he was giving me the directions to the location. I reached Nala and informed Sadanand of my arrival. Sadanand informed me that Ram will come with the material within 15-20 min at Nala. But actually he was monitoring my activities from top of the mountain. While I was waiting there, again this ranger came to Nala. Spotting him once again, Sadanand understood that we had set a trap for him. He informed me that he wouldn’t deliver the material. Both he and his brother had switched off their phones after this. I tried to contact them again but their phones were switched off. After one hour again I called Sadanand and he informed me once again that he cant deliver the material because he suspects us. He will confirm and deliver only after 15 days.
Doing the follow up, lets see when things work out.
NOTE: Names has been changed due to the under cover nature of work
