HYDERABAD: Forest officials arrested eight persons in Mahaboobnagar district today and seized 15 kg meat of sambar deer from them.
The officials said that the accused were neither smugglers nor hunters but were locals who killed the animal to consume the meat. The accused have been sent for judicial remand.
According to the forest officials, seven persons were apprehended at Kumaronipally village for possessing 7-kg meat of sambar deer and another person at Turkapally for possessing 8 kg of meat.
The accused are learnt to have tracked the animal in the Rajiv Gandhi Tiger Reserve Forest and killed it near a water tank when the animal came to drink water.
The officials said that such incidents were being reported frequently as the wild animals strayed towards water bodies during summer, making themselves an easy target for local people who kill the animals for their meat.