3 poachers arrested in Maharashtra’s Dhekoli forest area, one escapes

Kolhapur: Two Kudremani villagers, Ishwar Maruti Naik (26) and Gundu Maruti Tarwal (35), and their accomplice were removing traps from the Dhekoli forest area on Tuesday night. The poachers had earlier laid multiple traps in the area.
Naik and Tarwal were arrested the same night when a Chandgad forest range guard of the Kolhapur forest department, Prakash Shinde, caught them in the act. Their accomplice fled the spot. In a second poaching incident, within a few hours, the forest patrolling team nabbed another man while he was removing traps.
Both incidents occurred in the Dhekoli forest area of Madwale village in Patne Range late on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning respectively.
The two arrested poachers in the first incident were produced in court and later remanded in the custody of forest department. Forest guard Shinde seized hunting weapons, a sickle, mobile phone, torch and multiple hunting traps from the accused duo after arresting them.
Chandgad (Patne) forest range officer Prashant Awale said, "Our forest guard Prakash Shinde caught Ishwar Maruti Naik and Gundu Maruti Tarwal, both residents of Kudremani village of Belgavi district in Karnataka state, red-handed while they were removing hunting traps laid in the forest area. At this time, one of their companions succeeded in fleeing from the spot."
Shortly after, a third poacher was nabbed. "In the second incident, shortly after, Prabhakar Pandurang Bondre (55), a resident of Dhekoli village in Chandgad tehsil of Kolhapur district, was also nabbed when found removing the Faski, a hunting trap set for the purpose of hunting wild animals. A trap and sickle were seized from him," Awale said.
The operation was conducted under deputy conservator of forest G Guruprasad and assistant conservator of forests Navnath Kamble.
It was executed by range forest officer Prashant Awale, forest rangers Balasaheb Bhandkoli, Johnson D'Souza, Netaji Dhamankar and forest guard Prakash Shinde.