Notorious tiger poacher held in Belagavi

Hubballi: Belagavi forest department officials arrested a notorious tiger poacher, Chikka alias Krishna Patlepawar, a native of Madhya Pradesh, on Friday.

Chikka is accused of several forest offence cases in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. He is accused of poaching a tiger and a sloth bear in Maharashtra last year. Forest officials are working to extract details of his criminal involvement.

The Belagavi forest department officials, who were working on a sandalwood theft case that took place in July at Khanapur territorial forest happened to cross paths with Chikka, who was hiding in a tent near Kanabargi on the outskirts of Belagavi city. During interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in various forest offences.

The officials have also recovered sandalwood logs, and other equipment required to poach animals from him.

Speaking to DH, Belagavi Deputy Conservator of Forests Manjunath Chavan said the officials are interrogating Chikka to secure details about his involvement in other cases. “We are joining the dots to understand if he was involved in poaching cases in Karnataka as well,” he said.

Wildlife Activist Giridhar Kulkarni, while appreciating the efforts of the forest department, also highlighted the need for separate wildlife crime cells at each circle level of the forest department to investigate and speedily resolve organised wildlife crime cases.