TENKASI
Forest personnel have nabbed five persons for allegedly poaching a sambar deer and cooked the meat.
District Forest Officer Murugan, who received information on Tuesday evening over the phone about poaching of a sambar deer at Maekkarai near the Adavinainar Dam, dispatched a team to the village. When the team, led by Range Officer Suresh, visited the village and inquired the villagers, they came to know that a group of youths had hunted down the animal..
As the officials learnt that five persons from Maekkarai poached a sambar deer as it strayed into Maekkarai and cooked the meat, they nabbed G. Arumugasamy, 21, and G. Kaliappan, 35, both hailing from Paimpozhil, N. Yasirdeen, 19, M. Mohamed Sajir, 19, and W. Mohamed Ijaz, 20, all from Maekkarai.
They told the forest personnel that they shared the meat among themselves for cooking it. They dumped the legs and the skin in the forest. After recovering the skin and the legs, the forest personnel arrested them under Section 9 of Wildlife Protection Act 1972 on Wednesday and slapped a fine of Rs. 25,000 each. As they paid the fine, they were released later.
