Balasore/Baripada, Jan 16 (PTI) Armed police forces are being deployed to assist forest personnel in patrolling poaching-prone areas of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) spread over Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts in Odisha, officials said on Thursday.

The decision was taken after the state forest department suspected that a melanistic Royal Bengal Tiger was killed in November last year in the STR, the world's only habitat, where an estimated 13 black-striped cats remain.

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Police had on January 12 arrested four people in Mayurbhanj district after the skin and nail of a tiger was seized from their possession.

Earlier, six others were also apprehended in Balasore district after claws of the same tiger were recovered from their possession.

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"A total of 10 people have been arrested in connection with the death of a melanistic tiger. The poachers have admitted that they killed a one-and-half-year-old tiger," STR field director Prakash Chand Gogineni said.

The police are making elaborate arrangements to assist forest officials in checking the wildlife poaching in Similipal and adjacent areas, he said.

“Two platoons (1 platoon comprises 30 personnel) of armed police force are being provided to forest officials for conducting joint patrolling and flag marches in sensitive villages near Similipal Tiger Reserve to counter poaching,” Mayurbhanj SP Varun Guntupalli told reporters at Baripada.

At a press conference in Balasore, Police Eastern Range DIG Satyajit Nayak on Thursday said that armed police forces have been trained to assist forest personnel in patrolling and flag marches in the reserved areas.

“Specially trained armed police forces will assist the forest personnel in Balasore and Mayurbhanj forest divisions to protect wildlife,” Nayak said.

Around 40 police personnel in Mayurbhanj and 50 in the Bagudi range of Balasore have been given armed training for this purpose.

The DIG said that modern IT tools and technologies are being deployed to prevent wildlife crimes and in more than 180 locations, modern AI and infrared cameras have been installed to detect poachers and those who are involved in wildlife crime.

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