KENDRAPARA: Forest officials on Sunday seized nine kg meat of a wild boar at Khamarasahi village under Bhitarkanika National Park of the district during a raid on the house of a poacher. However, the poachers Anil Mohanty and Subash Jena escaped, said Subrat Patra, forest range officer of the park.
Acting on information that the two hunted a wild boar in the mangrove forest areas within the park, forest staff raided the house and seized the meat of wild boar, added the forest officer.
A case has been filed against the poachers under Sections-9, 27, 29 and 35 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and raids are being conducted on their hideouts, said Patra. Human and animal conflicts increase in summer when animals venture out of their habitat to quench thirst as water resources dry up in the forests, said Hemant Rout, environmentalist and secretary of Marine Turtle and Mangrove Conservation Society (MTMCS), Kendrapara.
“It is common to find spotted deer and wild boar in the evening near our village pond in the summer. We never kill the animals. Some poachers target the animals near the village water bodies and kill them,” said Pradip Das of Dangamala village.