KARWAR: In a major breakthrough, forest officials from Haliyal raided a homestay and recovered weapons and snares stored illegally. The team stumbled upon wildlife meat, three illegal rifles and hundreds of bullets and cartridges in the raid at Gobral village in Barchi range of Haliyal division on Friday night.
Three persons, including owner of Stanley Home stay Stanley Maben (57), resident of Barchi village, have been arrested. The accused were involved in hunting inside forest areas. The others arrested — Subhash Pujari (35) and Bapu Gurke (40) — were working with Stanley.
Yatish Kumar, DCF, Haliyal Divison, said, “We will also send an advisory to all the home stays to refrain from encouraging wildlife activities that are against the laws,” he added.
Two days ago, a leopard was caught in a snare and died near Barchi village. While investigating the case, forest officials caught hold of Stanley.
Officials suspect that bigger hunting gangs could be involved with the home stay in question as a decade ago it was common for hunting groups from Mumbai to camp in Dandeli and surroundings areas for to hunt game. “Why would someone have hundreds of bullets and cartridges unless they are involved in fulltime hunting,” asked a wildlife activist. “The owner of the home stay had cases with the police and those cases must be followed up. The police can crack the network of poachers and game hunters who may have been involved with the home stay,” he said.
Yatish Kumar said the team will look into it. “We had specific information about the weapons and wildlife contraband from the locals, hence it was decided to conduct a raid,” he said.