Anamalai Tiger Reserve officials booked for assaulting tribals
COIMBATORE: The Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) officials accused in the leopard poaching case are finding themselves in deep trouble. The Aliyar police have slapped a case against them for allegedly assaulting tribal people during investigation.
According to sources, police also registered a case against 50 tribal people on charges of preventing the forest officials from carrying out investigations and attacking them. Based on a complaint by P Kumar, they have registered a case against Pollachi forest ranger A Kasilingam and a few others under sections 342 (wrongful confinement) 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and 506 (1) (criminal intimidation) of IPC.
Similarly, on a counter complaint from Kasilingam, Aliyar police registered a case against 50 people, including Pandakalamman Pudur headman Paramasivam under sections 448 IPC (house-trespass), 147 (rioting), 294 B, 506 (1) criminal intimidation and 363 (kidnapping) of IPC.
Though both the cases were registered on Thursday, no arrests have been made yet. Forest department sources claimed that they have evidence to prove that the son of Pandakalamman Pudur village head chopped the head and four limbs of the 3-year-old female leopard and left the carcass 8 kilometres away, between Sarkarpathy power house and Aliyar, on the contour canal on September 8.
Initially, the investigation process was stalled after the tribal people assaulted the forest officials when they inquired Kumar and his accomplices to find the whereabouts of village head’s son. Alleging that they are try to frame the innocent people in the poaching case, CPM and tribal people staged a demonstration in front of the forest office and approached the Pollachi sub-collector Gayathri Krishnan, seeking action against the forest officials.
Forest officials are waiting for the sub-collector’s inquiry scheduled on September 26, after which they plan to take legal recourse to arrest the persons involved in poaching.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are up in arms against the police for booking forest officials, as they say the probe procedures would be affected and there are chances of poachers escaping from the department’s radar.