Three sentenced to 3 years in jail for hunting wild elephant in reserved forest in Kerala

Kochi: A Kerala court has sentenced three persons to three years in jail for hunting a wild elephant in a reserve forest in 2009, saying that the pachyderm is the state animal and its "merciless" killing for its tusks has to be viewed seriously.

Kothamangalam Judicial First Class Magistrate Haridasan E N convicted and sentenced Aji, Shaji, and Babu to three years imprisonment under section 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act which provides the punishment for contravening any provisions of the Act.

The court, in its January 17 order, also sentenced them to one year for the offence under section 27(I)(e)(iv) (trespassing into reserved forest with intent to hunt any wild animal) of the Kerala Forest Act.

Additionally, it also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on each of the three accused and said that the sentences shall run concurrently.

There were seven accused in the case and of them one died during the pendency of the case, another one -- Suresh -- is still absconding and the remaining two -- Renjith and A J Varghese were acquitted by the court.

According to the prosecution, in July 2009, the seven had hatched a plan to enter the reserved forest and hunt a wild elephant for its tusks.

Of the seven, the first five accused had entered the forest and hunted the six-year-old tusker, the prosecution had told the court.

The incident came to light after two of the seven were caught by forest officials with one of the tusks near Adimaly in Idukki district of Kerala.

The second tusk, the country-made gun and gunpowder used to hunt the elephant and a chopper as well as a handsaw blade -- used to cut out the tusks -- were seized from other accused.

The court said, "The prosecution successfully proved that the accused persons 1, 2(deceased), 3 and 5 along with the absconding accused Suresh (A4) trespassed into the Kathippara area of reserved forest and hunted an Indian elephant..." While sentencing the accused who faced trial and were convicted, the court said that a substantive sentence of imprisonment was "highly necessary" to meet the ends of justice.

"The Indian elephant (Elephas Maximus indicus) is the state animal of Kerala. Merciless hunting of the same, merely for its tusks is to be viewed seriously." the court said while giving the sentence.