A special team of the Coimbatore Forest Division have arrested two notorious poachers hailing from Theni district in connection with the hunting of two wild elephants in Sirumugai forest range in 2011.
P. Singam (45) and P. Kubendran (45), both natives of Andipatti in Theni, were arrested by teams led by forest range officers S. Selvaraj (Mettupalayam) and E.N. Manoharan (Sirumugai) from a place near Dharapuram. They were remanded in judicial custody.
After the arrest, Singam and Kuberan were taken into the deep forest on the eastern slope of the Nilgiris in Sirumugai range, where they showed officials the skeletal remains of the tuskers they had hunted.
They were also involved in the poaching of a third elephant in Sirumugai range.
The case registered for this is under trial.
As per a report by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), the duo had sourced 99 kg of ivory by hunting tuskers in various forest ranges in Tamil Nadu and sold them to a middleman named Babu Jose of Udumbanchola in Idukki district of Kerala between 2011 and 2014.
As per the WCCB report, Singam and Kubendran had poached tuskers for Jose at Kallar, Bhavani Kallar, Bhavani, Kotagiri Bhavani areas. The tusks were sold to Jose who had allegedly employed them.
Jose was arrested by the Forest Department in September this year in connection with the poaching of a tusker by Singam and Kubendran from a forest area of Mettupalayam range in 2011. Jose is currently in judicial custody.
The role of Singam, Kubendran, other poachers, middlemen like Jose, Aji Bright and Eagle Rajan in the poaching and trafficking of ivory in Tamil Nadu and Kerala came to light when nine persons (including Kubendran, Singam and Jose) were arrested in a wildlife crime at Vallakadavu forest range of Periyar Tiger Reserve in 2015.
300 kg of ivory
Aji Bright bought more than 300 kg of ivory sourced by Jose from Tamil Nadu as per the WCCB report, which is based on the confession statements of the nine persons.
District Forest Officer D. Venkatesh is currently overseeing the investigation into past cases the accused are involved in in Coimbatore Forest Division, after the WCCB sought to re-visit all elephant poaching cases and include the names of poachers or middlemen that were missed out.
