Two persons, Soura Pradhan (47) and Girish Chandra Dhal (25), of Ainsia and Ratapat villages, respectively, have been arrested by forest officials for poaching a wild mouse deer in compartment no-8 of the Balikiari Reserve Forest under the Narasinghpur (East) Range. According to sources, the two poachers were nabbed when they were distributing the raw meat of the killed animal in the reserve forest on Friday night.
On Saturday morning, Narasinghpur Ranger Uttam Kumar Gadnaik handed over the poachers to Athagarh DFO Arun Mishra, who forwarded them to the local magistrate. The magistrate remanded them to jail custody.