SGNP poacher fished illegally inside park; Thane cops recover his weapons

A probe initiated by the forest department revealed that Sushant Dashrath Bhowar, who was arrested on Tuesday by the Thane police for poaching protected bird species inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), was also involved in illegal fishing inside the park — an offence under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The police also recovered the airgun Bhowar used to kill the birds.

“During questioning, Bhowar confessed to killing two pond herons between November and December. The accused killed the birds as they were easy prey and ate them inside the park itself,” said an investigating officer.

The forest department also filed fresh charges against Bhowar and two others who hauled 100kg fish a month from compartment 101 at Chenna belt of SGNP in the past four years.

“We will produce Bhowar in Thane court on Thursday and request for his custody for two days to continue the investigation,” the officer said.

Bhowar is a resident of Patona Pada at Yeoor range of the national park.

A poaching racket was busted at Film City on December 31 and eight people were arrested for setting up wire snares and killing a deer and a leopard. The accused revealed they had killed a deer in 2016 inside the national park, which prompted SGNP to carry out an independent investigation into similar instances over the years.

The other accused — Suraj Bhawar and Bhavesh Thakare — are residents of Patona Pada and Vanicha Pada at Yeoor range.

“Both accused are absconding and their neighbours refused to divulge any information about them. The duo will be arrested soon,” the officer said.

An officer from Thane commissionerate said Bhowar had killed more than 24 birds, including protected species, inside SGNP in the past two years.

Senior inspector Pradip Girdhar from Vartak Nagar police station said, “We arrested Bhowar on Tuesday night recovered an airgun, an axe and a camera. He had purchased the gun [₹13000] and camera [₹5,000] from Crawford Market in 2017. He has confessed to killing birds and selling their meat. A probe has been launched to find out the people who purchased meat from Bhowar.”

First Published: Jan 17, 2019 00:33 IST