Poachers nabbed in 'Chamaraja Nagar'

Chamaraja Nagar : Four poachers were arrested have been arrested in Chamarajanagar district for allegedly possessing a huge cache of prohibited wildlife items.

According to the Karnataka Forest Department, the poachers allegedly possessed a huge cache of prohibited wildlife items including pelts, bones and claws. The forest department officials claim that operation was conducted on the late hours of Thursday after receiving the information some people were trying to sell wildlife products.

"It was a long process that our team got the information on some poachers planning some illegal activity at our MM Hills forest range. So our team followed them for many months and finally based on the strong information from the sources, we operated on Thursday late night and arrested four people. The poacher's native comes under Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Wildlife but their activity was at MM Hills" says Yedukondala V, DCF, Male Mahadeshwara Hills wildlife range.

The four arrested were identified as Mahadeva (28), Kumara (20), Mahadeva (22) and Rangaswamy (23) who hail from Hanuru taluk in Chamarajanagar. Since March 25, there have been many cases of poaching in Nagarahole and Chamarajanagar wildlife range and several people were taken into custody.

"We have increased our vigil and have deployed more forest officials to keep an eye on the suspicious movement of people inside the forests and this is helping us track down the poachers. The forest guards and the personnel of the Special Protection Force are on patrolling on a 24/7 basis working in shift. So these kinds of incidents will be curbed," DCF, Yedukondala V added.

According to the reports four tiger claws, tiger bones, two leopard claws, pelts of barking deer, spotted deer, flying squirrels, wild dog and Sambar deer were seized from them. The accused have been booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act.

Chamrajnagar forest range, one of the hottest bio-diversity spots in Karnataka. Spread over 540 sq. km, the BRT Wildlife Sanctuary is a haven for over 372 species of birds and wildlife like elephants, tigers, leopards, wild dogs, four-horned antelopes, blackbucks and the giant flying squirrels.