Tanahun, July 10:

Employees of the Tanahun District Forest Office recently seized four bones, including the horn of a deer, from the one-room museum of 17-year-old Prabesh Paudel of Byas municipality-3, Tanahun district.

Prabesh had kept the bones of animals in his bedroom. After this daily ran a report on Prabesh’s one-room museum on July 1, a DFO team raided the place and seized four of the largest bones. “We conducted an investigation to know whether the bones were of rare animals. Except the horn of deer, other bones were not of rare animals,” acting district forest officer Tikaram Panth said.

DFO employees said, “We were compelled to probe the matter.” Pantha said, “We will monitor Prabesh’s activities to see if he is a smuggler.” He has been told to present himself at the DFO once a month. Now, Prabesh wants to stop collecting bones and wants to study engineering. “I collected the bones because I did not know that it was illegal,” Prabesh claims. Lawyer Kamal Mohan Wagle said, “The law prohibits collection of bones of rare animals and their sale.”