Woman among three arrested for hunting peafowls in Trichy

TRICHY: In yet another incident of peafowl poaching in Manapparai of Trichy district, three persons including a 37-year-old woman were arrested in connection with poaching of five peafowls near Manapparai forest in Trichy district on Saturday.
While the arrested have confessed to poaching peafowls for meat, cases have been booked under section 20 and 27 of the Arms Act 1959 against 9 persons, including the three arrested, for illegal possession of weapons and its usage for poaching activities.
The arrested have been identified as Amudha, 37, Karuaiah, 50 and Gopalakrishnan, 24. Search is on for six more who are involved in poaching including the main accused Marimuthu and Mookan who are absconding.
“The peafowls were hunted on Wednesday (December 11) night at M Edaiapatti village near Maravanoor, about 10 km from Manapparai town. Marimuthu used a country-made gun in the farmland owned by Mookan to hunt down peafowls,” said district forest officer, D Sujatha.
The forest department received a secret information on the hunting activity in Manapparai based on which the district forest officer (DFO) formed two three-member teams from Trichy and Manapparai to nab the perpetrators. The team carried out a search operation on Friday night and nabbed three accused in the early hours of Saturday.
Sujatha said that it was only after the locals heard gun shots that they understood that poaching was going on and informed the forest department. The team has seized vessels and burnt feathers of the bird from the poaching spot. She assured to take steps to increase vigil in the region to prevent such incidents.
In a similar incident, a 42-year-old ex-serviceman was arrested for hunting 2 peafowls near Manapparai in October this year. A double-barreled licensed gun was recovered from the accused identified as A Thangaraj, 42 from Pudupatti village.