Three Bengalureans held for poaching blackbucks near KGF

Forest officials on Sunday caught three Bengalureans for poaching and smuggling blackbucks from the Badamakanahalli reserve forest on the outskirts of Kolar Gold Fields.

The prime suspect is Mohammad Jabran. He, along with two others Selvam and Manjunath, hunted a male and a female blackbuck with a .202 rifle. The animals were about five years old. Forest officials arrested the men when they were trying to smuggle the carcasses to Bengaluru.

Jabran owns a farmhouse on the edges of the Badamakanahalli reserve forest and visited it often. Residents of surrounding villages had complained to forest officials that some people were hunting animals in the forest which is home to thousands of blackbucks.

Forest officials are investigating whether Jabran has links with the gang that had poached two Sambar deer in Chikkamagaluru on New Year’s Day. A JMFC court has remanded the three men in judicial custody.