DHENKANAL/JAJPUR: Four poachers, two each from Dhenkanal and Jajpur districts, were arrested by forest officials who rescued a pangolin from their possession on Tuesday.In Dhenkanal, a special squad of Kapilash forest range nabbed two poachers and rescued a pangolin. The duo was identified as Ghanashyam Behera and Jitendra Pradhan. Sources said four poachers were carrying the pangolin on two bikes when forest officials gave them a chase.
While Behera and Pradhan were nabbed with the mammal, the other two managed to escape. The rescued pangolin was sent to Kapilash Zoo. ACF Rashmi Ranjan Swain said the forest officials have got vital clues about an active pangolin trade network. “We have reports of some more pangolins being captured from Kapilash Sanctuary. The location of the captured pangolins has been tracked and the animals will be rescued soon. Efforts are on to nab the kingpin of the poaching network,” Swain added.
The arrested poachers were produced in court and remanded to judicial custody. Similarly in Jajpur, Sukinda forest range officials arrested two poachers from Aradapal village and seized three nets used for catching wild boars from them. Acting on a tip off, a team raided a paddy field near near Khuntapasi village under Daitary reserve on Monday evening. The poacher duo was caught red handed while they were spreading the nets to catch boars.
On being apprehended, one of them rang up his family members on his mobile phone and informed them about their arrest. “While we were returning to our office along with the accused, residents of Aradapal stopped our vehicle near the village school and snatched the arrested poachers from us,” said Mohanty.Local police conducted joint raids with forest officials in the village on Monday night. The duo was apprehended in the morning. Both have been sent to jail.
3 nabbed with antlers
Dhenkanal: Forest officials arrested three persons for trying to hunt spotted deer in Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary on Tuesday. The arrested persons are Sujan Tiue, Chaitan Dehury and Sankar Purty. A gun, four bullets, bow, arrows and deer antlers were seized from their possession. Similarly, four persons were arrested for carrying guns inside Kandhar forest. They are Prabhakar Nayak, Bulu Pradhan, Satrughan Pradhan, all from Cuttack and Susantha Pradhan of Hindol.