JAGTIAL: The ongoing forest animal census survey has once again brought to light the high poaching activity going on in the forests of north Telangana district.
On the third day of census, forest staff stumbled upon poachers who managed to escape with the meat of sambar deer but had to leave behind the skin of the animal and their vehicle in Rechapalli forest area in Jagtial district on Tuesday. The poachers had put up wires to trap the sambar.
The incident brings to focus the on-going poaching activity in old Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Nizamabad districts. Earlier in 2017, forest officials had nabbed four persons for illegally transporting the carcass of a deer from Kataram forest area in Jayashankar Bhoopalapalli district to Hyderabad. Forest official chased the poachers and managed to seize their vehicle along with the deer carcass. Reports said that the poachers belonged to well-off families and regularly came to forests to hunt forest animals in the Kataram area.
In an incident in 2016, a tiger died after it came into contact with a live electric wire put up by poachers targeting wild boars and herbivores.
Poachers buried the carcass of the tiger in the forests of Pinnaram village in Kotapalli mandal of Mancherial district. Forest officials later exhumed the carcass and buried it in a rivulet on December 3 in 2016.
