Big haul of brushes made of mongoose hair in Kovai

“The seizure included about 50 varieties of painting brushes made with a variety of mongoose hair,” Wild Life Inspector (WLI) and Additional Director (incharge) of WCCB, Cochin, A Mathivanan said. 

The teams comprising officials and volunteers started the raids on the premises of a wholesale dealer at 5 pm on Wednesday and continued till Thursday evening. Raids were also held at five other outlets to whom the wholesaler used to supply the brushes. Wildlife enthusiast Mac Mohan who was part of the team said that its market price ranged from Rs 40 to Rs 150, a piece. This takes the value of the seizure to several lakh rupees. 

Inquiry with traders revealed that a sizeable volume was manufactured by leading brands that stopped making brushes with mongoose hair few years ago. “The traders here had the old stock of those brushes. But a major portion of the seizure was manufactured by a company at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. We have alerted WCCB head quarters at New Delhi,” an official said.

The seized brushes were taken to the District Forest Office and they would be produced before the court for initiating further course of action. The offenders were booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act.

The forest department has arrested two persons for possessing poached leopard and deer skins in Erode District on Thursday. Department personnel said that posing as merchants involved in illegal wildlife trophy trafficking they approached P Sasikumar hailing from Anandhapuram hamlet near Thalawadi. He was caught red-handed when he showed the leopard skin in his house. Department officials quoted Sasikumar as confessing that he got it from his relative V Krishnan in Karnataka who had set a trap for wild boars. But accidentally, a leopard got entrapped and died. In another incident M Sujir (32) of Palayam near Thalawadi was arrested for possessing a deer skin.