Four arrested for poaching chinkara, hare in Gir

Rajkot: In a crackdown on wildlife crime, the Gujarat forest department on Tuesday arrested four persons for allegedly poaching a chinkara and an Indian hare within the Gir East forest division.The arrests were made during an intensive night patrol in the revenue area of Dudhala village. The operation was jointly conducted by the range forest officer of Dalkhaniya range and the Khambha mobile squad.The accused have been identified as Jamal Baloch, 77, of Dhari; Salim Arab, 45, of Una; and two residents of Dudhala — Razak Makrani, 44, and Amir Darjada, 22.According to forest officials, the group allegedly hunted Schedule II animals using an unregistered muzzle-loading gun, a machete and a knife. After the kill, they reportedly butchered the animals, skinned them and packed the meat into a sack for transport. They were intercepted red-handed during the attempt to move the contraband.Officials seized the animal remains, weapons used in the offence and three motorcycles used for transportation.A case has been registered at Karamdadhi beat of Dalkhaniya Range under Sections 9, 39, 49, 50 and 51 the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The accused have been arrested and further legal proceedings are under way.The remains of the chinkara and hare have been sent for postmortems at Vekariyapara Forest Colony in Dhari.