It was an eyewitness who alerted and provided photographs to members of Plants Animals Welfare Society (PAWS-Mumbai) of some people entering with a gun in the mangrove forest area at Jankalyan Nagar.
Maharashtra State Mangrove Cell has arrested six people in connection with the complaints filed by a Mumbai based animal welfare organisation for allegedly entering with ammunition as well suspected poaching in the wetland area of Malwani.
It was an eyewitness who alerted and provided photographs to members of Plants Animals Welfare Society (PAWS-Mumbai) of some people entering with a gun in the mangrove forest area at Jankalyan Nagar, Malwani village on July 10 close to where several flamingos gather.
The mangrove cell team under Prashant Deshmukh, Range Forest Officer (RFO), Mangrove Cell using the photographs submitted by PAWS began to narrow down suspects. “It was the T-shirts that gave us the first lead as some communities are known to get a specific colour and designed T-shirts made in bulk, which are then worn by members from respective communities and since we saw two people wearing same kind of T-shirts in the images we were soon able to identify which group they belonged to in Malwani and we began keeping a watch for them,” said Deshmukh adding that as soon their houses were identified they relaised that we were looking for them and went into hiding for two days but on July 14 some of them contacted us and we managed to arrested them and booked them under sections of Wildlife Protection Act.
Mangrove Cell officials said that the gun seen in the images is a licensed one and the accused have said that they have sent it for repair purpose. “The gun will taken in our custody soon and we have also seized the plastic carry bag seen in the images and sent it for forensics to see if any traces of bloosd of any bird that could have been kept in it after poaching can be found,” informed Deshmukh giving credit to his team for quick investigation and action.
The six accused Hemant Bhandari, Bhopen Bhandari, Mangesh Bhandari, Rakesh Bhandari, and two others have denied poaching and claimed that they were in the wetlands to test the gun by firing it as it had some snag. “This is the version they have given us as of now but we are questioning them that if they were innocent why did they go into hiding for two days,” said another official adding that the accused will be produced in the court on Monday and investigations were being carried out.
Sunish Kunju, Wildlife Warden for Mumbai City and Founder of Plants Animals Welfare Society (PAWS-Mumbai) said that it was thanks to the alert citizen who took images of these people due to which they could be nabbed. “We hope proper investigations are carried out in thsi case and the guilty be punished,” he said congratulating the mangrove cell for cracking the case.
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 "6 arrested by Mangrove Cell for hunting in Malwani wetlands")
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