Bhopal: A major country-wide wildlife smuggling racket was busted after Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials raided a hotel in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on Saturday and seized a leopard skin with head (in trophy form).

Three persons were arrested in this connection. They have been handed over to the Forest Division, Bhopal, for further necessary action. The three are being questioned about where they got the trophy from.

Officials said that a team of the DRI’s Nagpur Regional Unit under the Mumbai Zonal Unit carried out the raid after receiving specific intelligence of a bid to sell the trophy. Leopards are listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, prohibiting the trade, sale, purchase, or possession of their skins or parts.

According a statement, this operation adds to DRI Mumbai’s past track record in combating wildlife crime. In May 2025, DRI seized two leopard skins (in trophy form) and one ivory (wild boar tooth) in Maharashtra’s Ujjain.
Again, in July 2025, it intercepted six individuals involved in the killing of a tiger cub by electrocution at Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, recovering nine tiger nails, 61 tiger bones, and the cub’s partially decomposed carcass.

In August 2025, two leopard skins were seized in Rayagada, Odisha, with the arrest of four persons.

“These sustained operations underscore the DRI’s unwavering commitment to protecting India’s rich and diverse wildlife from poaching and illegal trade,” the statement said.

“Through close coordination with state forest departments and other enforcement agencies, the DRI continues to dismantle national and international trafficking networks through precise, intelligence-driven enforcement under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,” it added.