GUWAHATI, July 21 - A farm house in East Karbi Anglong, where a Class I contractor raised deer and tortoises, allegedly for consumption was busted by a joint team of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Assam Police and Forest officials in a meticulous operation that went on till late in the night on Wednesday.
Four barking deer � two male adults a female and a male baby � and two tortoise shells were recovered from the farm house.
The farm house is located barely few metres from the highway at Dengaon under Dokmoka police station. The Dokmoka police station and the local forest range office are located just few km away and the farm house contiguous to Kaziranga National Park.
Sources in the WCCB told The Assam Tribune that the farm house belongs to a Class I contractor Mansinh Rongpi. Only a lady caretaker was there in the farm house at the time of the incident. Rongpi has been summoned by the WCCB to its Guwahati office.
�The farm house is well guarded by a high wall. There is a pond inside where apparently tortoises were raised. The illegal farming was apparently going on for more than five years. They used the meat of the animals during parties etc. It is not clear if the meat is sold,� the sources said.
The recovered deer were tranquilized and were handed over to the Kaziranga based Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation. They are likely to be released in the wild after necessary formalities and treatment.
The barking deer is a Schedule III animal under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
Officials were not sure about the species of the tortoise shells found in the farm house.
The WCCB had busted a country gun-making factory at Jogota Pahar under the Dokmoka police station in Karbi Anglong district a few days back. Among the items seized from the factory include a civet cat skin, two single-barrel guns, one air gun barrel, and an iron pipe.
Two days back, police and STF has busted another gun factory at Salna forest in Nagaon district.
