Amongst shoes and bags at the popular Sreeleathers showroom in Kolkata’s Lindsay Street, there was another thing on display. A blackbuck skin. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and Kolkata Police have arrested a senior Sreeleathers executive for illegal possession and procurement of the skin, banned under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA).

While the skin was seized nearly a month ago, company officials insisted it was a cow-skin, say WCCB officers. The forensic test results by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata, nailed the lie. “The results from ZSI are in and the skin is indeed a blackbuck’s. Sreeleathers Senior GM, H S Chatterjee, is at present, under judicial custody,” said a senior official from WCCB headquarters in New Delhi. Sreeleathers refused to comment.

“It is amazing that a reputed company would put up an illegal product on show. This skin has been found on an old trade route for illegal deer and antelope skin. Though the skin may have been procured through local agents, a high price must have been paid for it,” the official added

Kolkata has been an ‘old trade route’ and destination for poached skins of deer and antelope. Poached skins from the North East and rest of the country find their way to Kolkata and Chennai, both of which have tanning industries, officials said.

In 2007, as many as 544 deer and antelope skins destined for Kolkata were seized from Agartala airport.

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