3 yrs on, man held for death of elephant

According to Forest department officials, a calf elephant died after biting into a country-made bomb (‘avuttukai’ in local parlance) in Peria Thadagam area on July 29, 2016.

Inquiries pointed to Rajendran alias Senga of Peria Thadagam as having committed the offence. Though a search was on, Rajendran managed to remain in hiding.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Forest department staff who were on regular patrol pulled up a man at the Veerapandi bus stop upon suspicion. After inquiries, it was revealed that he was the absconding accused. Rajendran was later remanded to judicial custody.

In the second incident, Forest department staff arrested four people on charges of poaching after they were caught cooking deer meat in the Nilgiris. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Forest officials carried out a checking operation at houses in Pellathikambai tribal village, when the four, namely Rangasamy (40) Nagesh (39), Ramesh (36) and Saravanan (27), were caught red-handed. The deer meat was also seized. The four were produced before the Judicial Magistrate court and later remanded to judicial custody. A search is on for Krishnan (46), who too is suspected to have links to the poaching incident.