The Uttar Pradesh police busted a major international wildlife poaching racket on Monday when it seized 12 leopard skins from three persons in Lucknow.

A special task force of the police also recovered Rs 485,000 in cash and some weapons from the men.

One of the arrested men is a Nepalese national while the other two belong to Fatehpur, about 200km west of Lucknow.

Police said the Nepalese national, identified as Chirring Atup Tamand, was involved in a similar racket that was busted by the task force in April 2001 in Kanpur. At that time, he was arrested with four others with as many as 24 leopard skins and one tiger skin. He was later released on bail.

Tamand hails from Humla district in Nepal. His accomplices were named as Amin Ahmed and his brother Vakil.

The STF chief, Superintendent of Police Rajiv Ranjan Verma, said Tamang has been booked not only under the Wildlife Protection Act, but also under the Gangsters Act because of his repeated offences.

“The gang had a wide network engaged in smuggling of animal skins and hides to other states and countries with some neighbouring countries providing the conduit. A skin to Nepal fetches Rs 12000-13000 in the Nepalese market, from where it finds its way to the international market, where the prices are enormous,” Verma said.

Uttar Pradesh has a poor track record with respect to wildlife preservation. Statistics show that 204 leopard skins, eight tiger skins and 221 black buck skins were seized in different raids carried out by STF over the past three or four years in the state.

Besides, 125 tiger nails, 18,000 leopard nails and several reproductive organs of tigers were also seized during the course of different  operations.