Court orders deer meat seller to atone by giving wild animals water

Magistrate K Suresh Kumar gave this direction considering the drought that has badly hit the wild animals. 

Forest department personnel had arrested A Selvaraj (35), a daily wage labourer from Annur in Coimbatore District on February 21 following a tip off that he was selling deer meat. They also seized some deer meat from him. Inquiries revealed that one Marimuthu had supplied the meat to Selvaraj. The duo was booked under sections 39 (a) (d) (b) and 51 (i) of The Wildlife Protection Act. While Marimuthu could not be arrested, Selvaraj was lodged in prison. 

On Wednesday, Selvaraj’s counsel R Sivakumar filed a bail plea but the additional public prosecutor Mohammed Ismail objected to it. After listening to arguments from both sides, Magistrate Sureshkumar granted bail to Selvaraj on condition that he fills water tanks and troughs set up by the forest department in the Mettupalayam forest boundary to quench the thirst of elephants and other wild animals for 30 days. Selvaraj was asked to get a report from the Mettupalayam Forest Ranger and appear before the court after the 30 days.