Six Held in Nilgiris After Foresters Seize Sambar Deer Skin and Weapons

Overview

• Foresters from the Kattabettu range arrested six men in the Kotagiri area after acting on specific information and seized a country-made gun, a knife and a sambar deer skin.
• Officials named the detainees as Velu, Soorya and Manikkam from Karamadai in Coimbatore district and Senthilkumar, Viswanathan and Chinnadurai from Kanakambi hamlet near Kattabettu.
• Activists reported that the mix of outsiders and local suspects suggests a possible arrangement to kill deer for meat for personal use or sale, though no wider trafficking network has been confirmed.
• A forest department inquiry is under way; the coverage does not report formal charges or court proceedings at this stage.
• Green groups called for intelligence-led patrols and closer surveillance of remote jungle peripheries, saying stronger on-ground patrolling could deter repeat poaching in the Nilgiris.