Sources said beat officer Rashpal Singh and watcher Shashipal heard gunshots in the Haripur area. They reached the spot and caught Des Raj with two dead bar headed geese and .12 bore gun used for poaching.

It was later found that the accused in the case was also a beat officer in the Forest Department.

It is for the second time in less than a month that poaching of bar headed geese has been reported in the Pong Dam Wildlife Sanctuary. In the recent past 20 dead bar headed geese were recovered from the fields on the banks of Pong Dam lake in the Nagrota Surian area.

None had been arrested in the case as yet. It was suspected that certain persons had spread poisoned seeds in the fields. The bar-headed geese that feed in the fields during the night consumed poison laced seeds and perished.

Large flocks of bar headed geese could be seen feeding in the area along the lake. However, rapid poaching is threat to endangered wildlife bird variety that is protected under the Wildlife Act.

Sources in the area said reported poaching were just a tip of iceberg and local resort to mass killing of migratory bird by poisoning or other methods as netting.

The conservator, Wildlife, Dharamsala, admitted that a forest official had been arrested. He said a veterinary doctor had been sent to the spot for carrying out post-mortem of the birds.

The conservator forest had been informed to take disciplinary action against the accused forest official. A case under the Wildlife Act had also been registered against the accused official, he said.