GUWAHATI: Four persons, who had killed wild animals and allegedly devoured their meat at a “Lockdown Festival” in Nagaland recently, surrendered before senior forest officials.
The state’s Forest Department on Tuesday identified the quartet as Imchainba, Osungkum N Jamir, Yanger Jamir and Opangtemsu, all of them locals.
The Forest Department learnt about their participation in the “Lockdown Festival” after a video of it had gone viral on the social media platform.
A group of youth was seen in the video, putting up tents inside a forested area and roasting meat besides fish. One of the accused could be heard saying that they were celebrating the Lockdown Festival. He said they would stay in the jungle for more than a week.
During an investigation, it emerged that they had killed the animals inside the Intanki National Park.
“This (arrest) follows investigation by the department into the incident and zeroing down in on the suspects seen in the video celebrating Lockdown Festival,” the Forest Department said in a statement.
It said despite lacking technical capability, the department had traced and identified the culprits by using its own resources.
“The video depicts ruthless killing of wild animals, including barking deer and large Indian civet cat,” the statement said.
The Forest Department was investigating the case further as per relevant Sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and other relevant laws as applicable.