Panic gripped Bommasandra, a village attached to the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, near Kanakapura of Ramanagaram following the villagers finding some explosive substances.
While the villagers suspect they could be ‘launchers’ of central security forces, the police say they could also be country-made explosives prepared for poaching animals in the sanctuary.
According to the sources, three of such explosive substances were found on May 7 by three local persons. While two exploded when the persons set them on fire, one was handed over to the police on May 9.
The explosives looked like the casing of a [grenade of rocket] launcher. Some range practising trainings were held by the army personnel at the place long ago. The materials found might have been abandoned/accidentally left by the central security agencies or by the alleged poachers, said social activist Dinesh Kallahalli.
The areas in the Sangam forest range have many active wildlife poachers and they have been illegally catching mahseer - a large freshwater fish - in the Cauvery. The found substances might be of such poachers, he said.
Meanwhile, according to the police sources, personnel from the bomb disposal squad and forensic science laboratory visited the spot on Monday and collected some physical clues.
