Deer on menu in Bangalore gets Jumbo to act

Following a tip-off by former cricketer ‘Jumbo’ Anil Kumble, the forest mobile squad on Tuesday raided two dhabas in Chikkaballapur district after they were found serving wildlife meat. They later sealed the dhabas and arrested the owners.

Earlier, on Monday night, the officials had laid a trap and nabbed three poachers. A carcass of a blackbuck and a jungle cat were seized from the accused.

Former Indian cricketer and vice-chairman of wildlife board, Kumble had informed the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) BK Singh, who in turn asked the forest mobile squad to check the same.

Deputy conservator of forest mobile squad, KB Manjunath said that over the last one-and-a-half months, there was information that wildlife meat was being served in some dhabas on the outskirts of Bangalore at Bagepalli in Chikkaballapur.

Manjunath said that during the investigation, officials disguised as customers went to the dhabas and found hare and partridge’ meat being sold in plenty. “We wanted to bust the entire network and nab the hunters. We told the suppliers that we wanted animals for a party in Bangalore. For 15-20 days, we got a continuous supply of hares and partridges, which we released back into the wild,” he said.

“After developing a good rapport, on Monday night, we got a call from the trio for more wildlife animals. We laid a trap and called them to Bangalore. They reached the destination with the carcass of a pregnant black buck and a jungle cat. We immediately arrested them,” Manjunath said.

Following this and with the help of the local police and forest department officials, the team raided Manjunath Dhaba and Sai Baba Dhaba. The dhabas were shut down and the trio, were arrested and booked under Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) of 1972.

On investigation, the trio revealed that they belonged to the Hakki Pikki tribe and did odd jobs for a living. But since there was plenty of demand from the dhabas, these people killed animals for extra income. They used to hunt the animals in the jungles of Bagepalli and Andhra Pradesh forests, bordering the two states.

Manjunath also pointed that a lot of Bangaloreans were found going to the dhabas in city outskirts and to Bagelpalli to consume wildlife meat. Since there are no code names for wildlife meat, it is given only to select customers, whom the dhaba owners know very well. It was also found that a plate of partridge kabab and rabbit pepper dry was being sold at `150-200.

The arrested trio have been identified as K Nagaraju, Sudhakar and Manjunath.