Telangana Officials Bust Poaching Racket

Prompted by a reliable and credible tip regarding poaching activities, a team of officials from the Vigilance Wing of the Telangana Forest Department today conducted a raid in Jokora village of Nizambad district.

The officials raided a rice mill in the area in the wee hours of the day, and intercepted a poaching gang headed by a person named Luqman Affendi.

A thorough search of the mill led to the discovery of a skinned black-naped hare, two rifles with telescopes and silencers, night-vision binoculars, knives, 142 rounds of bullets, torch lights and other paraphernalia that Affendi had been using to hunt.

The DFO of the Vigilance Wing, M Raja Ramana Reddy, revealed that Affendi, a habitual hunter who would supply wildlife meat to his friends from the city, had confessed that he would regularly hunt black buck and spotted deer in a forest near the mill.

In a raid conducted at the accused's residence in Gudimalkapur area in Mehadipatnam, the forest officials found some unidentified meat in the refrigerator. They also found two rifle butts.

The recovered articles were seized, and the meat samples were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology so that the source of the meat could be determined.

The raids also revealed that Affendi would use a Tata Safari vehicle with the number AP 29 AN 0001 for his hunting trips. This too was seized.

The officials made five arrests in the case - Luqman Affendi, his brother Imran Affendi, and his employees Shaik Raj Ahmed, Mohammed Jameel and Mohammed Shahrukh. They will be tried under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972).

Though the five prime suspects have already been arrested, detailed investigations have been launched so that any other poachers can also be caught.

Note: Information on wildlife poaching cases of this nature can be passed on to the Forest Department by calling a 24-hour toll-free helpline number - 18004255364.