Date:04/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/04/stories/2008120452990300.htm

Karnataka

10 held, guns recovered

Correspondent

They were on a hunting expedition in the forests

CHIKMAGALUR: Ten persons on a hunting expedition in the Kalasapura State Forest were arrested by officials of the Forest Department at about 1.30 a.m. on Wednesday.

S.S. Lingaraja, Deputy Conservator of Forests, told presspersons that a four-wheeler, four guns, flashlights, alcohol and Rs. 17,000 in cash were seized from the poachers.

Pictures of a wild boar killed in an earlier expedition and captured on one of their mobile phone cameras were displayed.

Common

He said the forest officials were aware that such hunting expeditions were common in the Malnad areas.

Habitat

Stating that the poachers used gunny bags to sit on top of the four-wheeler, he said the Kalasapura State Forest was a habitat of wild boars, spotted deer, barking deer and predators such as leopards and tigers.

He said cases have been registered against the owners, managers and workers of coffee plantations in Kenjige in Mudigere taluk and Kaimara in Chikmagalur taluk where leopards died after they got caught in a noose in the plantation fence.