Uttarakhand: Three poachers nabbed from Corbett Tiger Reserve
The forest team also recovered from them one 12 bore gun, 17 cartridges, one sharp weapon, four knives, one search light and torch
Uttarakhand forest department officials on Thursday nabbed three poachers from Pakhro in Kalagarh division of the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR).
“A red alert had been issued in Corbett Park ahead of Diwali. On Thursday night around 11 pm, our patrolling staff saw a jeep entering Pakhro. They immediately laid a siege and caught three people,” Dheeraj Pandey, director of the Corbett Tiger Reserve, said.
The poachers have been identified as Syed Zafar Yab Ali Zaidi, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut, and Faheem and Intezaar, residents of Bijnor.
The forest team also recovered from them one 12 bore gun, 17 cartridges, one sharp weapon, four knives, one search light and torch.
The three have been booked under relevant sections of the Forest Conservation Act and Arms act, the officials said.
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“On Friday, all three poachers were produced in Kalagarh court from where they have been sent to jail. We have intensified patrolling and checking in the tiger reserve and surrounding forests. Surveillance is also being done with drones and sniffer dogs,” Pandey said.
In May 2020, the CTR administration arrested three alleged poachers following an alert by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.
In 2018, in a bid to add more teeth to its surveillance capabilities and collect comprehensive real-time ground information, the CTR administration initiated an intranet project having facility to live-stream from cameras placed in sensitive points around the reserve.
In February 2017, the administration issued shoot-at-sight orders within the reserve after the movement of suspected poachers was reported near the southern boundary of the facility.
According to a 2018 census conducted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the tiger population in CTR stood at 259 at the time.