Eight arrested for setting up traps in Shahpur forest

The police and forest department officials with the arrested poachers

Shahpur forest department officials on Thursday arrested eight people for setting a trap to hunt small wild animals near Khardi in Shahpur. A team of the forest division along with its range forest officer was on a patrolling duty when they spotted a few people sitting in the forest patch near Khardi. Given their suspicious behaviour, the forest officer along with its team alighted their vehicle and entered the forest patch. That's when the men began running, confirming the officials' suspicion.

Range Forest Officer Prashant Deshmukh told mid-day, "Without wasting any time, we got off our vehicle and entered the forest patch when the people started running. This was enough for us to understand that they were involved in some illegal activity. Our staff ran behind them and caught them. They soon confessed to having set traps to catch small wild animals like the hare."

The accused were taken to the location again where they showed the officials the traps, which were immediately removed. The nets have been taken to the forest department office where a case is registered against the accused under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The arrested accused, Gurunath Pardhi, 37, Narayan Pahu, 23, Balu Pardhi, 24, Sharad Budhar, 23, Vitthal Bathar, 32, Bandhu Pahu, 22, Ramesh Tumbhade, 21, and Ananta Rathad, 24, are residents of Musale pada near Khardi and the forest department will soon interrogate them to get further information on their possible involvement in wildlife crime cases in the past. All eight accused were produced before the court in Shahpur on Friday afternoon and have been remanded in custody.

11am
Time on Thursday when the accused were caught

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