The state foresters were in shock on Tuesday when they arrested a mother-son duo in Chincholi wildlife sanctuary limits on charges of poaching a four-horned antelope. The duo had illegally tapped into the electric line that was passing via sanctuary and used to systematically electrocute the animals.
Following a tip-off by the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (Gescom) engineers, on Tuesday the foresters arrested the duo when the family was attempting to recover the venison in the forest.
According to forest officials the arrested have been identified as Hemibai Tulasiram and Reddi Tulasiram, the residents of Pedda Thanda in Chincholi taluk. Giving details of their chilling trick, Sanjeev Kumar Chavan, Range Forest Officer, Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary said the arrested were experts in using electrical cables to kill wildlife and confessed to the killing of various species of animals using the same technique.
“Their preparation was such that they had drawn a electric cable trap (copper wire) for close to 2 kms inside the sanctuary limits. A powerline passes along the road between Anthavaram and Pedda Thanda.
The family had illegally tapped the power using a bend-wire hook and drew power from the mainline to energise the metal wire snares that they had deployed inside the sanctuary. More than getting trapped in the snare, the animals would have died due to electrocution after coming in contact with the wire.”
On Monday too Gescom officials alerted the foresters as they frequently received complaints of line-trip and power cuts from the receiving station. “Based on the Gescom engineers' inputs, our officials along with beat personnel were patrolling the area and they came across the family trying to skin the venison.
They had already buried the pelt and close to about 1 kg of copper wire used to kill the antelope which is considered vulnerable as per the IUCN list,” Chavan explained.
During the raid by the forest officials, the father Tulasiram Rathod and another accomplice Ambrurama Pawar managed to escape from the spot. The arrested have been booked under the Indian Wildlife Act, IPC and were remanded to judicial custody, according to the officials.