BHUBANESHWAR: Sleuths of Chandaka Wildlife Division arrested a notorious poacher, Bishnu Charan Pradhan, from a village outside the protected area late on Tuesday.
Pradhan, 42, is known to be a hunter of small herbivores for the sale of meat. This is the first time he was arrested.
The accused has no hands, and yet, would drive four-wheelers, bike and use firearms with no difficulty.
Divisional forest officer of Chandaka Wildlife Division Kedar Swain said a team was on the lookout for Pradhan for the last two to three months. “We had pointed out information about his location and raided his house in Sundarpur village where he was arrested around midnight,” he said.
Pradhan, also known locally as “Khandi” (for not having hands) shuttled between two homes he had on the fringe areas of the sanctuary which gave him easy access to the forest.
Though he was behind poaching of spotted deer, wild boar, barking deer and hare, he eluded arrest.
The forest officials recovered a muzzle-loading country-made gun from the accused possession.