Tiger hunted by electrocution, 5 accused arrested
Sarangarh. A case of hunting of national animal tiger has come to light in Sarangarh-Bilaigarh district. After this incident, the Forest Department team arrested 5 accused and sent them to jail, 6 days after the hunting. An electric wire was laid by the accused to hunt a wild boar, due to which the tiger got hit and died. This tiger was roaming in Gomarda Sanctuary of Sarangarh-Bilaigarh district for the last one month. Within the last one month, it had hunted Nilgai and other animals and the forest department was keeping an eye on it through trapping cameras to capture its movement.
After the case of tiger hunting came to light, the forest department team first tried to hide it, but later arrested five poachers under sections of the Forest Act. According to the forest department, this tiger had come to this Gomarda sanctuary from the forests of Odisha bordering the district. Incidents of hunting of wild animals have been continuously coming to light in Sarangarh-Bilaigarh area including Raigarh district and most of the incidents are cases of wild elephants. Despite this, the forest department is not able to take any major action against such illegal hunting, due to which now the poachers have directly lodged complaint with the National Forest Department. The animal has challenged the department by hunting the tiger.
Hunters who hunt wild boars and other animals by laying wires through illegal electrical connections in the forests have been continuously doing illegal hunting in collusion with the Forest Department employees. In the month of December, a tiger was seen roaming in the forest of the area in Gomarda Sanctuary of Sarangarh, after which the forest department was continuously monitoring the said tiger by installing camera traps and forming STPF. Also, continuous monitoring and tracking was being done. Meanwhile, based on the suspicion of the Forest Department due to the footprints of the tiger not being found in the forest after January 12, the department alerted its informers and started tracking.
Under which, on the basis of information received from informers on January 24, the first three accused were arrested, who during interrogation told that a tiger had died in the electric wire installed to hunt wild boar. Fearing being caught, the hunters buried the tiger’s body in the nearby forest on the banks of the Lat River. The Sarangarh Forest Division team, STPF and Forest Department’s dog squad inspected the place where the dead body was buried by the accused and discovered the skeleton of a tiger. Simultaneously, a raid was conducted in the house of the accused by the dog squad due to which electrical wires and other hunting related materials used for hunting were seized and two other accused were also arrested. The dead body was autopsied and burnt as per rules. During the autopsy, all the body parts of the said tiger were found intact and the sample was sent for testing.
