Five persons were arrested by the Forest Department recently for hunting wild boar with country-made explosives near Coonoor.
S.M. Sasikumar, Forest Range Officer, Coonoor Range, said they received information that a group of men had hunted wild boar and were in possession of the animal’s meat. They raided the homes of the men and found three kilograms of meat, believed to be that of a wild boar hunted by them.
The five men were identified as N. Lokesh and N. Kannan from Sogathorai in Coonoor, S. Raghuvaran, R. Anish and J. Melvin from Ketti near Udhagamandalam. They were booked under sections of the Wildlife Protection Act and remanded in judicial custody.
The officials are on the lookout for two other persons who they believe had made the explosives.
In the last few years, a number of gaur have died after accidentally biting into these explosives that are used to hunt wild boar. A few weeks ago, a cow died due to an explosive, following which an intense operation was launched by the Forest department to track and arrest those responsible.
The officials suspect that the five accused could have been responsible for the previous incidents reported from the area.
