Police arrest twelve after explosives kill jackal in Tamil Nadu, India

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Authorities on Monday arrested twelve people in Tamil Nadu, India after a jackal died trying to eat a bomb embedded in meat that subsequently exploded. Jackals are protected in India.

Officials said a police constable, reportedly one Vijayaragavan, saw the twelve with the dead jackal in Trichy, decided to question them after they aroused suspicion at a tea stall, and learned they were responsible for the jackal's death. The forestry department arrested them. According to local news sources, the constable found the jackal's bagged carcass after inquiring.

The suspects range in age from 21 to 78 and were identified as Narikuravars from the village of Poolangudi. They were taken into the custody of the forestry department. Authorities said the killing occurred in Jeeyapuram forest in a bid to gain jackal meat and teeth.

The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 lists jackals as a protected species. India's jackals face attention from poachers, who sell the parts. One study in the Journal of Threatened Taxa from March noted authorities seized 126 skins, eight tails, 16 skulls and two live jackals from 2013 to 2019. The same study also noted over 370 "jackal horns" seized in the same period. Jackal horns are crafted from skulls of jackals and are considered talismans.

Last week, in the neighbouring state of Kerala, one suspect was arrested in connection with the death of a pregnant female elephant suffering from explosive injuries. Authorities said they believed a fruit filled with firecrackers had exploded in the elephant's mouth, damaging her jaw and ultimately leading to her death.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Related news

"Suspect arrested in death of elephant in Kerala, India that ate explosive fruit" — Wikinews, June 7, 2020

Sister links

File:Wild Life (Protection) Act (India) 1972.djvu

Sources

The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 — Ministry of Law (India), June 11, 2020 (date of access) (PDF)
Akshaya Nath. TN: 12 tribals arrested for feeding jackal explosive stuffed meat in Trichy — India Today, June 9, 2020
Jackal Killed in Tamil Nadu After Being Fed with 'Meat Bomb', 12 Arrested — News 18, June 9, 2020
Jayakumar Madala. 12 Narikuravars held for killing jackal by stuffing explosive inside meat — The New Indian Express, June 9, 2020
12 arrested for poaching fox — The Hindu, June 8, 2020
Shiv Sahay Singh. Poaching and trade in golden jackals may be widespread in India — The Hindu, April 6, 2020

External links

Malaika Mathew Chawla, Arjun Srivathsa, Priya Singh, Iravatee Majgaonkar, Sushma Sharma, Girish Punjabi, Aditya Banerjee. Do wildlife crimes against less charismatic species go unnoticed? A case study of Golden Jackal Canis aureus Linnaeus, 1758 poaching and trade in India — Journal of Threatened Taxa, March 26, 2020

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License