Rare deer species recovered from deep jungles of Hawaithan, forest officers suspect smuggling circuit

The Forest Officers recovered a rare species of deer under the Dholai-Hawaithan Forest Range. The forest officers found the deer tied to a pole with a chain yesterday morning. Later, the deer was brought to their forest office and taken care of until restored to a protected natural location. Last evening with the help of forest officers the deer was released at the Borail Hill Ranges.

The forest officers of the Lailapur Forest Beat Office were on a survey of the deep jungles of Paglacherra when they found this deer. According to Range Officer Uttamananda Goswami, the deer species is foreign to them and the forest. He said, “A survey was going on in that forest. Our men found this deer from the deep jungles inside Paglacherra and it was tied. This species is unknown to us and we have not seen this before. When I got to know about this, I along with my other staff members rushed to the spot and recovered the deer”.

The forest officer also said, “Probably this species was smuggled by someone to sell to in the black market”. The deer was later released at the protected forest of Borail Hill Ranges for safety in a natural habitat.

Lailapur falls on the Assam-Mizoram border and has been making news lately for illegal animal smuggling. Last month eight slow lorries were recovered by the police from the Assam Mizoram border and a few days back two rare species of orangutan were also recovered by the police from the same area. The Lailapur border has become a safe corridor for smuggling, not just narcotic contrabands and now rare species of animals. Investigation in this case is going on.