In a major crackdown on wildlife trafficking, forest officials in Odisha’s Athagarh division arrested 11 suspected poachers today, seizing over 800 dead bats packed into three sacks inside an abandoned timber factory.

The operation, triggered by a local tip-off, exposes a brazen poaching syndicate operating in the Khuntuni forest range, raising questions about a larger network and its elusive mastermind.

The raid unfolded near Kapursing village under the Khuntuni forest range, where poachers had turned a derelict sawmill into a makeshift slaughterhouse. Acting on intelligence about a long-running bat smuggling ring linked to jungle mafias, Range Officer Nilamadhaba Sahu mobilised his team and two additional forest squads. Locals, alerted by suspicious activity, had already surrounded the

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