Forest Department personnel in the Nilgiris on Sunday arrested two poachers for killing a tusker near Kundati, in Sigur Range, in December last year, for its tusk. This was in connection with the series of arrests made by the forest personnel in the Nilgiris district during the last few days. Search is on for a tribal who is said to be their accomplice.
Forest personnel said that on November 28, Rangan (35) a tribe from the Kurumba community at Jothikombai, near Coonoor, surrendered and confessed that he guided poachers Singam and Gubendran to hunt tuskers in the forests in The Nilgiris. Based on the information provided by him, another tribal Chandran (40), of Adderley, was arrested.
The duo was taken to the forest for about five hours (on Saturday) to spot the carcass of the elephant they hunted last December. A forest veterinary team will perform a post-mortem on the bones of the elephant identified by the accused. The poachers were booked under Section 9 (prohibition of hunting) of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. They were lodged in the sub jail at Udhagamandalam on Sunday.