The use of conical long nets to trap black-naped hares has come to light in Virudhunagar district. Local forest officials secured more than 21 poachers involved in such hunting in the last one week.
Shekhar Kumar Niraj, Conservator of Forests, Virudhunagar Circle, told The Hindu on Sunday that two special teams with six persons each had been formed following specific information about poaching of hares in the district. The teams conducted raids in villages in and around Virudhunagar, Sivakasi and Kariappatti.
Dr. Niraj said the poachers used powerful torch lights fitted with buzzers. The noise from the buzzers attracted the hares and when they came close, the poachers beamed the lights to stun them. When they stood still, the nets were thrown on them, he said.
Investigation revealed that the poachers brought the nets from Sivaganga and each net cost about Rs. 3,000. More than half a dozen conical nets were seized by forest officials so far. A total of 26 live hares were rescued by the officials, of which only 10 survived. The remaining died due to stress and shock.
A couple of months ago, the officials during a check, seized two gunny bags in which black-naped hares trapped from wild were found. Apart from the hares, the poachers also targeted wild partridges, Dr. Niraj said.
Impact on other species
Killing of hares in the wild would directly affect jungle cats, mongoose, jackals and foxes, as the hares are the main prey for these small mammals in the forest. If the hare population dwindled, automatically the survival of the small mammals would be affected very badly, he said.
The poachers have been remanded to judicial custody. A few of the arrested persons were found to be habitual offenders and the officials were planning to detain them under the Goondas Act, Dr. Niraj added.
