DHARMAPURI: A 24-year-old youth from Kodakarai tribal settlement was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly killing a female elephant in the Palacode forest range.
Palacode forest ranger P Natarajan told TNIE, “On Friday, forest staff were patrolling the Kariguttanoor beat at Morappur reserve forest when they found the carcass of a female elephant, which may have died a week ago. While searching the vicinity, the team spotted four people fleeing. We also found two country made guns, explosives, cooking vessels, two dead monitor lizards and a mobile phone.”
The team traced the accused to the Kodakarai tribal habitation in Doddamanju panchayat in Krishnagiri district. Four people, E Marappan (24), E Murugan (25), V Krishnan (22) and an 18-year- old boy, were secured on Tuesday. During inquiry, they told the forest staff that they had only poached the monitor lizard and Marappan was linked to the elephant killing.
Based on their statement, Marappan was booked for poaching the elephant while all four were booked for killing the monitor lizard. They were arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
Dharmapuri District Forest Officer S Rajangam said a probe is underway in the elephant poaching case.