Three persons were arrested in two separate incidents of poaching in the reserve forests near Vellore. Fresh deer meat, hide and antlers, a country-made gun and two-wheelers were seized from them.
Forest officials said a five-member team, including three forest guards, was on routine patrol in the Karuthamalai Reserve Forest in the Odugathur Forest Range along Jawadhu Hills in Vellore when they noticed five men in the forest around 5 a.m. They managed to nab one of them, who had a country-made gun and the head and antlers of a spotted deer. The four others escaped.
“Before being caught, they shared the meat among themselves. They had two bullets, one of which was used to kill the animal and the other was seized by us,” D. Saravanan, Forest Range Officer (Odugathur Range), told The Hindu.
