The Forest Department personnel arrested five persons on charge of collecting meat from the carcass of a two-year-old female spotted deer at Kalarampatti village on the Athur Road near here on Wednesday.
Forest Department sources said the spotted deer which strayed into the patta land of a local farmer from the nearby reserve forest died when it was attacked by stray dogs.
Meanwhile, a group of people of the village on spotting the carcass of the animal took it home and cooked the meat and consumed the same.
On receiving information, Forest Department personnel on the direction of G. Vadivel, District Forest Officer, rushed to the village and arrested K. Kamaraj (41), R. Veerasamy (30), V. Ravi (38), M. Vijayakumar (30), and V. Sivagnanam (41). They seized skin of the deer and raw meat along with the vessels.
Mr. Vadivel compounded the case and slapped a fine of Rs. 20,000 on each of the accused under Section 54 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972.
In another incident, a spotted deer was killed by a speeding vehicle at Pulivalam in the district early on Wednesday.
The two-year old female deer was crossing the road near Pulivalam village on the Tiruchi-Thuraiyur main road, when it was hit by a speeding vehicle and died on the spot.
According to forest officials, investigations are underway, based on the forest guard’s report. A postmortem was performed by a veterinary doctor and the carcass was buried in the reserve forest in Pulivalam.
