NILGIRIS: Tamil Nadu forest department officials have arrested three persons in connection with the poisoning of two tigers, including a mother tiger, at Bitherkad.
The suspects have been identified as Suryanath Parag (35), Amankoyala (24), and Suresh Nanwar (25) and they confessed that they were involved in poisoning, the wild boar using Furadan 3G (brand name), which contained 3% granulated carbofuron, with the motive to kill the tigers for skin, nails, and teeth.
According to Gudalur Forest Division DFO Vengatesh Prabhu, 'During the investigation, few photos and videos were recovered from the deleted photos recovery bin, which contained dead wild boar images in their mobile phones, and they were involved in wild boar killing in the past also.
"The hard work put in by the team had resulted in securing the accused since there were suspicions against them from the beginning and they were kept under vigilance, which prevented them from escaping, " he said.
The case was booked against the accused under WPA ,1972 Under sections 9 , 39(1)(d)(3)(c), and 50&51 at Bitherkad Forest Range.
"The toxicology report on the sample taken from the two tigers and wild boar during the post mortem revealed that the tigers had died due to carbofuron and chlorpyrifos poisoning. Moreover, the sample taken from the intestine of wild boar does not contain any toxic chemicals, but the sample taken from the skin tissues contains a high amount of carbofuron and chlorpyrifos," said D Venkatesh, Field Director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and Conservator of Forests Nilgiris.
In the post-mortem, it was found that both the mother and sub adult tigers had wild boar meat in their intestines. From toxicology report and post mortem, the wild boar carcass had been poisoned and both the Tiger and Tigers had died after feeding on the wild boar meat.
Venkatesh said that in the future, more awareness will be given to the general public and action will be taken in killing wild animals, which will attract stringent punishment under WPA, 1972.
Venkatesh Field Director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and Conservator of Forests Nilgiris congratulated the team led by Vengatesh Prabhu, DFO Gudalur, for successfully securing the accused involved in the killing of two tigers at Sussex Estate, Bitherkad in Gudalur forest division on August 20.