KENDRAPARA: Forest officials arrested a poacher and seized 8 kg of venison from his possession at Pataparia village within Bhitarkanika National Park here on Sunday. Forest officer of Dangamal range Subrat Patra said acting on a tip off, officials raided Pataparia and arrested poacher Kailash Das with the meat of a spotted deer.
During interrogation, Das admitted that he, along with Srikrushna Mana, Abhimanu Kala and Benudhar Dalai of Pataparia trapped and killed a spotted deer in the nearby mangrove forest of the park on Saturday night, he said. “We also seized the hide of the deer, 10 plastic traps and two motorcycles from Das. The poacher was booked under Sections 9, 27, 29 and 35 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Raids on hideouts of other poachers, who managed to flee from the village after Das’ arrest, are on,” said the Forest officer.
Das was produced in the court of JMFC at Rajnagar and remanded in judicial custody after his bail plea was rejected. Spotted deer, wild boars, Sambars and other animals stray into villages near the park in search of water during summer. Human-animal conflicts increase in the summer months as water bodies dry up in forests, said environmentalist and president of Marine turtle and mangrove conservation society, Kendrapara Hemant Rout.