A six-member inter-State poachers’ gang was busted by an alert Forest squad on Saturday midnight in Kanakagiri reserve forests in Thallada range of Khammam district.
The swift action by the forest squad helped foil a poaching bid and led to the arrest of all the six members of the gang and seizure of a sniper rifle (country-made gun), a knife, an axe and a car from their possession.
The arrested were identified as P Sugreev, 58, of Hyderabad, D Mithun Kumar, 31, a snake catcher and B Suresh, 36, of Bhadradri Kothagudem district, B Venkata Srikanth, 38, Hyderabad, B Narayana Rao, 20, and T Vijaya Nagaraju, 20, of Andhra Pradesh, said sources in the Forest department.
A forest squad led by Gattugudem Dy Range Officer K V Rama Rao nabbed the six members of the gang as they were allegedly attempting to hunt wild animals with weapons, during night patrolling in Kanakagiri reserve forests around Saturday midnight.
They were arrested under the Wildlife (Protection) Act and produced before a magistrate in Madhira who remanded them in judicial custody till April 19, sources added.
The gang is believed to have conducted a recce in the Bendalapadu forest beat near a Kakatiya era hill shrine in Chandrugonda mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem district last year.
District Forest Officer, Khammam, Siddharth Vikram Singh on Monday took to X (formerly Twitter) to appreciate the Thallada forest range team for their swift action in arresting the six members of the gang and thwarting their ‘poaching bid’.