With beat officers of the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary finding a man from Koraput district in Odisha in the core Umayar area of the sanctuary on Wednesday afternoon, a comprehensive combing operation launched by the sanctuary staff continued on Friday too.
The man, identified as Srikand Pujari, 55, was arrested and is under remand.
The combing operation was launched in the wake of Maoist threat in forest areas. So far, no clues linking Pujari to any militant outfit have been obtained. The Koraput police too have found nothing untoward in Pujari’s antecedents.
Wildlife Warden of the sanctuary R. Lakshmi said the combing operation would conclude on Saturday.
Range Officer of the sanctuary Shivaprasad is heading the operation, and Ms. Lakshmi will be joining it on Saturday.
Simultaneous combing operations are being carried out in the forest areas of Tamil Nadu bordering the Shendurney sanctuary which extends into the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and the forests of the Tirunelveli division. Ms. Lakshmi said both the sides were in contact. So far, nothing unusual had come to notice.
Yet, how a stranger reached the core area of the 171-sq km wildlife sanctuary all alone remains a mystery.
Pujari, during interrogation by Forest and police officers, said that he reached Umayar through the Tamil Nadu forests. He said he had left his house three years ago and had been roaming around the country since. This version has been corroborated by the Koraput police.
The Koraput police informed the Kottarakara police that Pujari’s family members had said he was mentally challenged.
Ms. Lakshmi said Pujari was handed over to the Kollam rural police for further investigation. The Kollam rural police said the Koraput police had confirmed that Pujari’s house was in the Borigumma police station limits.
His family members said the last information they had about him was that he was somewhere in Karnataka. The Kottarakara police said Pujari would be interrogated further.
Combing launched in the wake of Maoist threat
Man in custody suspected to be mentally unstable
