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Forest Department officials have arrested two men from Kerala for shooting and killing a wild bison near Ooty in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.
Officials said they are still searching for two more people who fled the scene with the gun. The vehicle and weapons used in the hunt have been seized. The arrested men, Aneesh Mon and Nishar from Nilambur in Kerala, were caught in Naduvattam in Nilgiris after the forest department tracked a Kerala-registered car suspected to be involved in the hunting. During questioning, the two confessed to killing the bison. The two accused have been arrested. The incident took place near Kallakorai village, on the road to B Maniyatty village, where locals spotted a dead wild bison. Forest officials arrived at the scene and found that the animal had been shot. A veterinarian removed the bullet and carried out a post-mortem. Furthermore, the forest department has been patrolling various areas in several groups at night to monitor the hunting gangs throughout the district. In a similar incident which occurred days ago near the Emerald area, the forest department arrested a similar gang that arrived in a car caught with weapons. Following the Emerald area arrest, the movement of hunters in the region had noticeably reduced due to intensive checks by the forest department in various areas. In a separate incident which took place earlier on May 1 in Tripura, the state's Forest Department distributed 58 motorcycles to its frontline field staff, such as foresters and Forest Range Officers, at a special program at the Tripura State Forest Academy Ground in Hatipara, Agartala. The initiative aimed to enhance the mobility and response time of forest officials during patrolling, particularly in vulnerable forest areas. The motorbikes are expected to significantly aid field-level operations in curbing illegal activities such as timber smuggling and the exploitation of valuable forest resources. According to forest officials as more bisons escape from the forest and roam around tea gardens and residential areas in Nilgiri, they are often hunted for meat by hunter gangs targeting Gudalur (Tamil Nadu) and Kerala. (ANI)
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