Kolhapur: Officials of the Gargoti range of the forest department here have arrested eight suspects, including a sarpanch, for the act of poaching a wild boar.
The eight accused allegedly hunted the animal using an explosive hidden inside a meatball. They then cooked the wild boar to consume its meat around midnight on Tuesday. All the suspects are from the Khedge village of Bhudargad tehsil in Kolhapur district.
A case was registered against the accused under the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 and the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2022.
Forest department officials said more poachers are suspected to have been involved in the activity, and a further investigation is ongoing.
Range forest officer for Gargoti, Avinash Tainak, said, "We received information that a wild boar was killed using a handmade explosive hidden inside a meatball at a farm in Khedge. We immediately carried out a combing operation in the village. When we raided the homes of the suspects, raw and cooked meat of wild boar was found. Accordingly, we arrested Prakash Haibati Desai (59), Shankar Dhanaji Ghorpade (50), Janardhan Shivaram Desai (58), Subhash Tukaram Desai (46), Santosh Baban Desai (47), Subhash Babaso Desai (44), and Antoba Yashwant Kamble (78)."
Another accused, sarpanch Yogesh Eknath Desai (35), absconded from the spot at the time of the raids. He was later nabbed using his mobile location with the help of the cyber cell.
"Besides the eight arrests, the meat of the wild boar and utensils used to cook it have also been seized by the forest department. When produced in court, the accused were awarded forest custody till March 13. A further probe is underway and the number of suspects is likely to increase," added Tainak.
Tainak, along with forest rangers Balwant Shinde, MB Kashid, Sadashiv Desai, and forest guards Vanita Koli, Ashish Chalaskar, Varsha Torse, and Sanjay Goud, took the action under the guidance of deputy conservator of forests G Guruprasad and assistant conservator of forests NS Kamble. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with
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