Thirteen peafowls died after consuming a poisonous substance sprayed along the bund of a farm and on the banks of a ‘kanmoi’ nearby, allegedly by a farmer to protect his paddy crop from rats, in Arimalam village in Tirumayam taluk in the district recently.
The Forest Department here arrested the land owner, K. Kasinathan of Seegampatti village, on charges of poisoning the peafowls and produced him before the Tirumayam judicial magistrate court for remand.
Acting on information that peafowls were found dead on the Azhingi kanmoi on Sunday, a Forest Department team went to the spot and conducted a probe. During the investigation it came to light that Kasinathan had allegedly sprayed the poisonous substance along the bunds of his farm land and along the ‘kanmoi’ after rodents kept destroying paddy crop raised on his land.
Based on an investigation, the Forest Department arrested Kasinathan on the charge of poisoning the peafowls and booked a case against him under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The accused was lodged in the sub jail in Aranthangi, Forest Department officials said.
The official said samples had been lifted from the carcasses and sent to the Forensic Laboratory in Tiruchi to determine the poisonous substance that killed the peafowls.
In another incident, the Department officials arrested a 29-year-old man on charges of poaching two peahens using an un-licensed country gun inside the Sevilimalai reserve forest in Ponnamaravathy range in the district, in the early hours on Thursday.
The crime came to light when Forest Department officials were conducting a night patrol inside the reserve forest area when they found Periyasamy with the dead birds and held him. The country gun used for poaching and the dead birds were seized, said another official.
