India-Meat poaching.

INDIA-MEAT POACHING.

NAGPUR: Four poachers from Nagpur were caught red-handed with the meat of a spotted deer

(chital), which they had killed in the reserve foreskms from here in Ramtek forest range on Saturday.

Those arrested include kingpin Aslam Khan, Mohammed Nawabuddin, Mohammed Afzal and Shoeb Ali, all residents of Sadar. Their two accomplices managed to escape. Official sources said the deer is learnt to have been killed in Borband beat in compartment number 610 around midnight of Friday.

The accused were returning on three scooters, carrying search lights, when a team of foresters patrolling in the area saw them. Round officer N R Gawande and his men pounced on the accused. Caught unawares, the poachers tried to flee but four of them fell to the ground while two managed to escape. Those who escaped left the meat behind. The poachers were also armed.

"During search, foresters found 40 kg deer meat stuffed inside the utility boxes of the two scooters. It is suspected that the deer was slaughtered inside the jungles and skin and skull was disposed of by the accused," said D P Sadavarti, assistant conservator of forests (ACF).

"The accused have told that they went into the jungles to catch fish. The spot where the deer was killed is in a dense forest and what the accused were doing there will be investigated," Sadavarti said.

Nitin Desai, director, Central India, Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), who also visited the spot to help the investigations, said, "The incident is an eye-opener and people intruding into the forest to kill wild animals

for meat on Holi day cannot be ruled out."

Conservator of Nagpur forest division, N Rambabu, said the accused were produced before the Ramtek JMFC and four days’ MCR has been granted to them.