3 Maharashtra Men Lay Electrified Wire For Boar, Kill Tigress Instead, Arrested

Three men were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly causing the death of a tigress in eastern Maharashtra's Bhandara district, forest officials said.

As per the preliminary probe, the accused had laid electrified wire to kill a wild boar, but the tigress came in contact with it and was electrocuted.

The carcass of the three-year-old tigress, cut into four pieces, was found in compartment number 74 in Jhanjhariya in Tumsar forest range on Monday. It had burn marks too.

The authorities took help of sniffer dogs from Pench Tiger Reserve (Nagpur) and Gondia Forest department to find the culprits.

Raju Piratram Warkade, resident of Pachara village whose field is near the spot where the carcass was found, was questioned as a sniffer dog led police directly to his house, said a forest official.

The big knife used to chop the carcass into pieces was found. Warkade then spilled the names of Rajendra Mahadeo Kunjam and Durgesh Ratiram Lasunte, both residents of Navegaon in Tumsar tehsil. All three were arrested, the official said.

The accused had laid a live wire to poach a wild boar on January 2 but it caused the death of the tigress, officials said.

A case was registered under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and further probe was underway.

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