Acting on a tip off, the Karnataka forest department officials on late Sunday evening arrested a Kannada Bigg Boss contestant after the live TV show ended from Bengaluru. The contestant, identified as Santosh Kumar (Varthur Santosh), was caught on camera wearing a tiger claw pendant.
The forest officials from Kaggalipura range, arrested the 28- year cattle breeder and farmer, from Varthur village in Bengaluru, after confirming that the claws which he was spotting on the television screen were genuine and not fake.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Kumar Pushkar, told The New Indian Express, that the arrest was made on October 22, 2023 in Bengaluru. He said that they had got a tip- off from an activist and viewer.
Immediately acting upon it, the team comprising of deputy conservator of forests (DFO) and range forest officers (RFOs) went to the set of the TV shooting of Colours Kannada channel.
“The team waited for a while as live shooting was on. The production team supported us. We procured the pendant that Santosh was wearing and started verifying it. After it was confirmed that it was genuine. The TV crew was informed and soon after the shooting ended. Santosh was called out and arrested. He has been booked under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and a wildlife forest offence case number 02/2023-24 has been filed against him by the Kaggalipura RFO, before the magistrate,” Pushkar said.
Forest officials told TNIE that Santosh has also confessed to his possession of genuine tiger claws.
The forest officials said that investigation is still on and soon the jeweller will also be booked. It may be recollected that earlier a similar case had happened in 2009. In 2012 former principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), wildlife BK Singh, had written a letter to the head and secretary of the jewellers association warning them not to get involved in making jewellery using wildlife items. In the letter Singh had said that the involvement of goldsmiths and jewelers in wildlife crimes.
“The members of the community are at the cutting edge level and are vulnerable to use illegal body parts of wildlife in their finished goods. I would request the association to take serious note of it and inform the members to keep themselves away from possessing or using any illegal wildlife body parts, lest they will proceed as per penal provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972,” the letter said.
Later again in 2022, former PCCF, wildlife, Vijay Kumar Gogi, wrote another letter to the secretary of the jewellers association in Bengaluru, making the same inferences. Forest department officials said despite repeated correspondence, the use of real and fake wildlife items in jewellery is being found.