4 ‘Caught’ by Camera Traps Carrying Weapons in Amrabad Tiger Reserve Arrested
Officials recovered a country-made rifle, a spear, an axe, ball shots for the gun and explosive materials from the arrested persons
HYDERABAD: Fears of poaching of wildlife and possibly big cats arrived at the Amrabad Tiger Reserve with forest department officials arresting four persons carrying deadly weapons that can be used for hunting, and who were ‘caught’ by camera traps in the forest.
On Wednesday, forest divisional officer Chandrashekar told reporters in Achampet that during checking of images from camera traps installed in the Achampet division of the reserve as part of the fourth stage of the All India Tiger Estimation exercise, they came across pictures of some people inside the forest carrying weapons in the Inole forest beat, not very far from the Prataparudra Fort on a hillock near Mannanur village.
The images were captured on May 18, and inquries and establishing the identities of the persons took some time. Those whose pictures were taken by the camera traps were identified as Mudavath Balu, Dharangula Narasimha, Saria, and John Paul, a pastor from Bhadrachalam. While Paul has been working in and around Achampet for some time, the others were from Chaturbavi Thanda, Chandapur and Lingotam villages, Chandrashekar said.
He said once the identities of the men carrying weapons, including a spear and a country made gun were confirmed, they were arrested and cases filed under the Wildlife Protection Act against them.
Chandrashekar said that the tiger reserve had a network of some 300 motion sensitive camera traps, in addition to 30 CCTV cameras, and a thermal drone that can identify animals and people even in the dark with a five metre resolution. It was these camera traps that caught these people, and anyone who enters the forest without permission, can be identified, and caught thanks to the equipment that is used in Amrabad Tiger Reserve, he said.
Officials recovered a country-made rifle, a spear, an axe, ball shots for the gun and explosive materials from the arrested persons. We believe that the arrested persons were in the forest to hunt wild animals and after a thorough investigation, will be able to find out what they were doing in the forest, Chandrashekar said.
Nagarkurnool divisional forest officer Revanth Chandra said people should inform the department officials of any suspicious activity by people near or inside the forest, or if they have any information of any attempts of poaching of wildlife.
