The COVID-19 lockdown and closure of meat stalls have coincided with a surge in poaching of wild animals, as evident in three cases in the last few days.
In the latest incident, Forest Department personnel nabbed one person identified as Ashoka in the Kalahalla range of the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in the early hours of Thursday. The forest guards intercepted a gang which was exiting from the forest boundary and three of the four members escaped from the scene. However, Ashoka was taken into custody and is being interrogated. The officials seized deer meat from him. A hunt has been launched to nab the others.
This is the second incident in Nagarahole since the lockdown. In the earlier case the authorities had sighted another gang in the forest which evaded arrest but they recovered deer meat.
In the adjoining Bandipur, four persons in the Gundre range whose photographs were captured in the camera-trap, were taken into custody by the authorities last week. They were charged with trespassing and poaching and remanded in judicial custody. The accused were named as Venkate Gowda, Mahadevappa, Puttaswamy Nayaka and Ganesh while the fifth, identified as Machi, is absconding.
Sources said despite the lockdown the Forest Department was fully equipped to handle any exigency and all its staff were deployed on fire fighting and watch duty. The cancellation of safaris has also helped augment their field force.
