Berhampur: Forest personnel arrested a 45-year-old man for allegedly killing a peacock in a forest near Dakarabada village under Buguda forest range in Ganjam district on Thursday. He was identified as Kedara Swain of the same village.
Besides carcass of the bird, over 500 metres of wire, glass bottles, bamboos and some other materials were seized from the poacher.
"Swain had laid a wire in the forest by hooking it to a 11 KV line to kill wild boars. A peacock got entangled in it and was electrocuted," said forest range officer (Buguda) P K Sahu.
On finding the dead peacock, the forest officials laid in wait for the poacher. "He was caught while snapping the wire from the 11 KV line," Sahu said.
The carcass of the three-year-old bird was buried after postmortem, he said.
The forest officer said Swain was not arrested earlier in connection with any poaching incident. "We are verifying his antecedents. There may be cases pending against him in other forest ranges," he said.
Patrolling has been intensified in vulnerable areas, where people hunt animals by illegal hooking, he said, adding, villagers also lay live wires in agricultural fields to protect their crops from wild animals. Tnn
