With the arrest of two poachers of a gang, forest officials today claimed to have foiled a hunting bid at Chandragiri under Tarasingi forest range in Odisha's Ganjam district.
A loaded country-made gun, 10 bundles of wire and a horse were also seized during a raid, said forest range officer (Tarasingi) Anup Banerjee.
While the two arrested accused were identified as Kasiram Pradhan and Jayaram Pradhan, another gang member escaped when forest officials, led by divisional forest officer (Ghumusar North), raided the area on Friday, he said.
Forest officials suspected the accused were planning to poach wild animals, riding the horse. The wires were to be used for illegal hooking from high-tension electricity lines. They were trying to electrocute wild animals like elephants, bears and wild boars, the range officer said.
Poachers lay down live wires in forests and electrocute animals. Such incidents are high during harvest season when animals come to eat foodgrains and vegetables.
Around 10 elephants were electrocuted in Ganjam district in the last three years, official data showed. Many wild boars, barking deer and bear died after coming in contact with live wires during the period, forest department sources said. Three bear were killed near Bhanjanagar recently.
Raids are conducted regularly to crack down on poachers, said the forest ranger adding officials of power distribution company Southco have offered cooperation to forest department in this regard.
A meeting of DFOs and Southco engineers was held here recently to formulate modalities to prevent poaching through electrocution.
