Five held for poaching in Mhadei wildlife sanctuary

India: Forest department officials on Sunday arrested five youths for poaching in the forests of the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary at Kodal village in Sattari taluka.

Range Forest Officer (RFO) of the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary Paresh Parob said forest personnel led by Round Forest Officer Samir Dessai and forest guards Abhishek Naik, Nitesh Varak, Pankaj Parwar and Sharad Gaonkar were on patrolling duty along the Satre Kodal forest area on Saturday evening when they noticed a Maruti Swift car parked in the forest.

Suspecting some illegal activity, the team immediately launched a search for people inside the forest. On Sunday afternoon, they found five youths – Prajot Benaulikar, Subhash Chorlekar, Ritesh Jadhav, Samir Gaonkar and Sanjay Chorlekar – in the forest.

Parob said that the five youths were arrested for trespassing the wildlife sanctuary with an intention of killing wild animals. The poachers used the car to enter the forest from Satre village and stayed put at a place called Vazra inside the forest, said Parob. He said that the forest officials have seized the car, and two unlicensed guns of which one was loaded, cartridges and inflammable objects found in the possession of the poachers.

Further investigation in the case is on under the supervision of RFO Parob.

(Source: The Navhind Times)