Watch: Poacher shares Instagram reel of child playing with monitor lizard, gets arrested

Vempalli Forest officials arrested the poacher, Chiranjeevi, a native of Vaddepalli, Galividu mandal of Annamayya district, for illegally hunting wild animals and selling their meat after killing them.

Kadapa: A man, who illegally hunted a monitor lizard and posted a video on Instagram of his child playing with the endangered animal, was nabbed by Forest officials in Andhra Pradesh after an animal rights activist from Karimnagar alerted them.

Vempalli Forest officials arrested the poacher, Chiranjeevi, a native of Vaddepalli, Galividu mandal of Annamayya district, for illegally hunting wild animals and selling their meat after killing them. Chiranjeevi had allegedly shared a video of his child playing with a monitor lizard on Instagram.

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The video was shared on the Instagram page ‘chiru 1521’. After seeing the video on Instagram, animal activist from Karimnagar, Adulapuram Goutham, of Stray Animals Foundation of India NGO, wrote a letter to District Forest Officer, YSR (Kadapa), Andhra Pradesh, on July 2 seeking action on the illegal hunting of monitor lizards.

 

Reacting to the written complaint, the DFO instructed Vempalli Forest Ranger Balasubramanyam to look into the matter. Forest officials arrested Chiranjeevi on Monday night on poaching charges.

According to Balasubramanyam, Chiranjeevi used to hunt wild animals and sell their meat after killing them.