From setting up snares to leaving fruits packed with explosives and poison to passing high voltage current through solar fences, improvised techniques are being devised in Kerala’s forests and forest fringes to hunt wildlife.
The illegal hunting of wildlife in Kerala came to focus with the killing of a pregnant elephant last week in Palakkad.
The animal is suspected to have chomped on a fruit filled with explosives, laid to kill wild boar.
Poisoning and laying snare made out of Bowden cable are the common methods adopted to keep crop raiders under control. Rarely, some miscreants take to guns. Wild animals, including elephants, are electrocuted when they come into contact with solar fences connected to direct power supply points, according to senior forest officials.
Waste from poultry farms is also used to trap wild boar. Plastic containers of 500-litre capacity are used to trap wild boar in some parts of Thrissur. The jars are filled with chicken waste and laid in pits.
Attracted by the stench, the animals get into the container, only to be trapped, said a Divisional Forest Officer. Such traps are laid to kill the animals for meat, he said.
They stand still
In another case, steel snares with sharp spikes were seized from Chalakudy. The spike closes in on the limb of the animal as it attempts to free itself. As the spikes hurt, the trapped animal would abandon its struggle and stay still, he said.
Wild boar is the commonly targeted species in Kerala as the animals are known crop raiders. Barking deer, spotted deer, Sambar, elephants and at times tigers walk into the trap and get killed.
Most of the illegal hunting takes place in private estates and agricultural lands located near forest areas, which are outside the protected areas, said a Divisional Forest Officer of a flying squad.
Only organised gangs hunt inside forest areas and that too for ivory and pelt. Such operations require men, money, and a network to sell the products.
A few cases were also registered in the State for hunting elephants, he said.
Punishment
Hunting of wild animals is prohibited by law.
The Wildlife Protection Act 1972 prescribes a maximum imprisonment up to seven years and fine for such offences. Besides hunting, the possession of meat of any such animal or trophy derived from such animals is also punishable under the Act.
