The brazen youths who uploaded photographs on Facebook showing their prized catch of a hare killed in the Pushpagiri forest in Coorg are now on the run after the forest authorities identified the ‘poachers’, including Darshan Pande from Bengaluru and booked cases against them under the Wildlife Protection Act.
The group had hunted a hare and caught crabs from a riverside at Nadnahalli in Pushpagiri forest near Somwarpet a week ago. Taking the clues from the photographs posted by Darshan Pande on Facebook, the forest authorities visited the spot and identified the poachers as Darshan Pande and his friends Guruprasad, Suresh, Chandrashekar and Rajashekar. Reports said the investigators have seized a gun from the residence of one of the accused.
The reports said the men had gone on a trek along with dogs and the hare was apparently killed by the dogs. To show off their ‘exploit’, they took pictures holding the hare and put it up on Facebook. They were also seen barbecuing crabs caught from the riverside in the photo uploads that included two dogs.