Three suspected poachers were arrested by Forest officials in Angari forest block within Bhitarkanika National Park of Kendrapara district on Tuesday. Animal traps, nets, spears and sharp weapons were recovered from their possession, said Divisional Forest Officer Kedar Kumar Swain.
The arrested are Abhiram Rout, Prasanta Sahani and Kalakar Mallick of Kanhupur village. They were produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) in Pattamundai on Wednesday. The court remanded them in judicial custody after rejecting their bail plea.
“During patrolling in Angari forest a team of officials found several traps laid to kill spotted deer and wild boars. We recovered all the traps from the forest,” said Swain.
The poachers trap the hapless animals by spreading nylon ropes in the mangrove forest and its nearby areas and kill the deer. Some poachers also use trained dogs to kill the spotted deer. Four years back, the forest officials had arrested some poachers along with their trained dogs.
The Bhitarkanika National Park is the home to about 20,000 spotted deer and the population of the deer is rising in spite of rampant poaching as each year a female deer gives birth to at least two baby deer.
The large population of deer is not getting sufficient fodder and water inside the park areas for which the hoofed animals often stray into nearby village fields and water bodies in the summer for which the poachers easily kill them,” said Sudhanshu Parida, an environmentalist and secretary of the district unit of Peoples for Animal.
