Foresters foisted case on insane man, allege villagers
The villagers, who sought the release of Sekar, later withdrew their protest after officials of the forest department held talks with them.
Villagers stage protest in front of forest department office
COIMBATORE: Villagers and family members of a 58-year-old man, who was arrested on charges of poisoning two tigers to death, had accused the forest department of falsely implicating himin the case.
They besieged the forest department office in Ooty and also resorted to a roadblock protest on Thursday condemning the arrest of Sekar from Emerald Village.
“The cow, which was killed by some carnivore, does not belong to him. Sekar claimed ownership of the cow expecting some compensation from the forest department. In fact, he is not in a proper mental state,” said one of the protestors.
Villagers alleged that the forest department had made the arrest without properly investigating the sensational case. They however claimed that in 2019, a cow owned by Sekar was killed in a tiger attack. But the forest department then failed to provide compensation for the loss.
The villagers, who sought the release of Sekar, later withdrew their protest after officials of the forest department held talks with them.
District Forest Officer (DFO), the Nilgiris Division S Gawtham said the arrest was made only after Sekar confessed that the carcass of the cow belonged to him. “He also identified his animal to be with a rope in its neck along with a couch same as that of the carcass,” the official said.
Two male tigers aged eight and three years respectively were found dead on a stream flowing into Avalanche Dam and another nearby under suspicious circumstances. A carcass of a cow was also spotted near the forest area and samples were sent for a laboratory analysis.