Pair of stag horns seized from suspected poachers

The salubrious population of herbivores around Bangarpet is under threat, as poachers are prowling in Kolar district. Forest officials arrested three people on Saturday night and recovered a pair of stag horns along with weapons. This is the first poaching case of a stag this year, forest officials said.

Samanth Jayaram (25) and Prarthan Gunashekar (19), both from Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh; and Krishnappa Kadinappa (61), a resident of Bangarpet, were nabbed by a team of forest patrolmen while they were allegedly transporting a pair of stag horns from Bodagurki near Kamasamudra to Kuppam. They had concealed themselves by wearing the camouflage uniform of the forest department, said Santosh Kumar, Range Forest Officer, Bangarpet.

Forest officials also recovered matchets and pellets of bullets. "The stag horns appeared to be of a two-year-old and we have seized them. We are interrogating the suspects to determine whether they are part of any larger network dealing in wildlife trade," the RFO added.

The men reportedly told forest officials that they were only involved in transporting the horns, while the animals were hunted by another gang. The horns have been sent for medical examination. The suspects have been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and some sections of the IPC.

People representatives and activists from Bangarpet and KGF have been urging the forest department to declare areas around Kamasamudra as either protected forest or notify it as deer sanctuary, considering the thriving population of these herbivores.