Assistant Conservator of Forests, Satish Phale, (Anti Poaching Unit), said, “We had received information from the NGO about a classified advertisement appearing on a pet website inviting people to buy a species of rare birds. After contacting the people on the address mentioned in the ad, we sent one of our men posing as customer to buy the hawk.”

On January 31, the two sellers, later identified as Mohammad Sayed and Farhan Khan, agreed to meet the customer at a parking lot near Santacruz airport. “When they arrived in a car, they brought a bird with the tied feet. When they offered to sell the bird at a price, they were arrested by our officials and charged under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act,” said Phale.