Around 300 tribal villagers of Mayurbhanj district who on Thursday had gone for hunting wild animals were stopped by forest officers of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve.
Acting on a tipoff, the officials prevented the tribals, who had set parts of the forest on fire to create panic among the wild animals before hunting them.
The tribals from 10 villages armed with traditional weapons had come to celebrate the Akhand Shikar ritual in the Simlipal forest.
Akhand Shikar is the annual mass hunting ritual of the local tribals. It traditionally begins with tribals offering prayers to their deities on the Mahabishub Sankranti before setting out on hunting expeditions in the Similipal forests. The hunt is in open defiance of the forest and environment laws protecting wildlife.
The forest officials counselled the tribals and succeeded in dissuading them from mass killing of wild animals.