Three arrested for hunting Toda buffalo in the Nilgiris
The Hindu
Three men from Kerala arrested for hunting and killing a Toda buffalo in Nilgiris, confess to smuggling meat.
The Nilgiris district police arrested three persons from Kerala who hunted a Toda buffalo near Pykara Dam on March 5.
The three accused were identified as K. Jamsheer, 36, U. Muhammad Rasheed, 26 and K. Jishnu, 27, from Vazhikkadavu in Nilambur, Kerala.
According to the officials, the hunting of the buffalo had been informed to the police by the owner of the animal, K. Vijay Kuttan, 24, from Pudumund in Glenmorgan on March 6.
Mr. Kuttan had found that his buffalo was killed and butchered and informed the Pykara Police. Following the complaint, police began reviewing CCTV footage from the area and noticed a group of suspects in a car in the area. They traced the car to one person in Nilambur and questioned the individual, who revealed that the three accused had rented his car to visit the Nilgiris on March 5.
Police went to Nilambur and apprehended the three suspects and brought them in for questioning. During interrogation, the three men confessed to slaughtering the buffalo they had seen during their visit and for smuggling the meat into Kerala where they sold it to buyers.
The three men were formally arrested following their confession and remanded to judicial custody. The police also recovered slaughtering equipment the men had used to kill and skin the buffalo.
More than 2.6 lakh village and ward volunteers in Andhra Pradesh, once celebrated as the government’s grassroots champions for their crucial role in implementing welfare schemes, are now in a dilemma after learning that their tenure has not been renewed after August 2023 even though they have been paid honoraria till June 2024. Disowned by both YSRCP, which was in power when they were appointed, and the current ruling TDP, which made a poll promise to double their pay, these former volunteers are ruing the day they signed up for the role which they don’t know if even still exists