Tiger poaching: Three more arrested in Mancherial

Forest officials said all three from Rangapet village in Bellampalli mandal in Mancherial district, were caught from their homes, following a tip-off

Mancherial: Three more alleged poachers were arrested on Saturday in connection with the poaching of a tiger in the Kushnepalli Range forest. Three nails of the tiger were seized from them.

Forest officials said Borlakunra Vinod, B Srinivas and Seelam Srikanth, all from Rangapet village in Bellampalli mandal in Mancherial district, were caught from their homes, following a tip-off.

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On being interrogated, the three confessed to killing the tiger by setting an electrified snare on the outskirts of Rangapet five years ago. They said they had laid the snare for hunting wild animals but the tiger came into contact to it and died on the spot, after they extracted the nails and buried the carcass.

On March 25, three poachers Balachandar, K Anji and Laxmaiah, all from Rangapet village were arrested while one of them was trying to sell the tiger nails. Apart from the nails, based on information from the, the carcass was exhumed from a spot near the village and sent to a forensic lab to establish gender and age of the tiger.