Forest Department officials told The Hindu that the convictions were the result of meticulous field work done by the staff, who went undercover, posing as potential buyers of animal skins, which led to a long trail of criminals which culminated in the arrest of a kingpin, involved in the wildlife trade, identified as S Ebenezer, 63, from SholurMattam, who was found to be in possession of countrymade rifles, and confessed to having killed tigers near Kotagiri.

On Tuesday, the Kotagiri court judge sentenced Ebenezer to three years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs. 30,000 on him, failure to pay which would result in his sentence being increased three-fold. Four others were sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay Rs. 10,000 each as fine. They were identified as M. Loganathan, 46, B. Shankar, 39, from Pudu Colony, Kotagiri, N. Soundararajan, 40, from Om Nagar, Kotagiri, and R. Lakshmanan, 45, from SholurMattam. All five men were arrested by the Forest Department in October 2006, after a three-month-long undercover operation.

They were booked under sections 9 (prohibition of hunting) and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. K Tamilmohan, Forester, Kotagiri Range, said that the men were found to be in possession of tiger and leopard skins as well as animal skulls.

“In total, 19 people were charged with offences. During trial, two persons died, while 12 others were acquitted by the trial court,” a top forest official said.