No modern firearms. No explosive materials either. An iron wire (known as jiya wire) and some wooden sticks is all the weapons used by poachers to kill tigers. Sounds incredible but true. These were used in the killing of tigers in the erstwhile Adilabad district — Pembi forest and Jannaram forest.
Interrogators initially didn’t believe when Sailu, prime accused in the poaching of Royal Bengal Tiger on Shivaram outskirts of Jannaram mandal in Mancherial, told them he simply used jiya wire to kill the big cat.
Lethal wire trap
Ramagundam police, who took over investigation of the tiger poaching case, are still suspicious of Sailu’s claims that he set up the wire and connected it to power source to kill wild boars. “But there is no doubt and it is true that he used iron wire and some sticks to wrap it around them so that the animal coming in contact with them would die of electric shock,” Ramagundam Police Commissioner V. Satyanarayana said.
Poachers like Sailu and farmers keen to protect their crop fields from wild boars have been using this wire trick for long. Here’s how. A wire is fixed around wooden poles one to two feet above the ground and around the field. Then they connect it to the main power lines in the vicinity of the fields. Animals trying to enter the field suffer a shock as they come in contact with the jiya wire (which turns into a live wire as electricity passes through it) and die. Simple.
They do recce of the areas in the forest where the animals move. “The easy and general spot to find animals is ponds or other watering holes. They know animals come there,” a police officer explained.
Police believe Sailu went to Shivaram outskirts where tiger pug marks were found earlier. This was publicised by officials in the villages warning people to be cautious about tiger movement. Sailu had fixed the jiya wire nearly a kilometre long close to water sources nearby where the tiger was likely to come for water.
Some poachers hoping for wild boars, deer or Nilgais to fall into the trap of their ‘electric wire fencing’ wait all through the night.
The moment they realise an animal died, they disconnect the power source and take away the animal. Others fix up the live wire in the night and come the next morning to the spot to check for any catch in the trap.
The Ramagundam police have formed special teams to stitch up all available leads in the case to ascertain if any organised gangs are behind the tiger poaching in Jannaram.
