Two persons held for poaching wild boar near Perianaickenpalayam

A team of Forest Department staff were on regular patrol in the Perianaickenpalayam forest range on Sunday night, when they came across two persons wandering around with a bag in a suspicious manner on Sunday late night.

The duo was secured and inquiries with them revealed that they were in possession of wild boar meat. They were identified as Kumar (38) and Arumugam (51), both hailing from Kavundampalayam and they had hunted down a wild boar for its meat.

Further inquiries revealed that they had poached a wild boar by placing a country made bomb (called avuttukai in local parlance). They had poached the animal with an intention to cook its meat. It has been a practice widely in prevalence in Coimbatore region to use country bombs as bait to kill wild boars.

The bomb usually sealed in a ball of corn flour and mixed with some animal fat explodes when an animal bites. Its smell attracts wild animal’s particularly wild boar and jumbos. For wild boars, it is instant death while elephants suffer a slow death after their mouth gets injured in the blast.

Despite crackdowns, people continue to kill wild animals by placing country bombs along forest boundaries. A case was registered against the duo under Wildlife Protection Act and fine of Rs 20,000 each was imposed for the offence by the Forest Department.