Four men were caught red- handed by forest officials when they were poaching hares on Wednesday.
A team of six forest personnel comprising Oddanchatram ranger, forester and anti-poaching watchers were on night patrol near Parapalar dam atop Palani hills near Oddanchatram when they noticed suspicious lights inside the forest area.
Around 4 a.m., as they waited under the cover of darkness, four men arrived on bikes carrying three dead hares and a country-made gun.
The forest officials caught them and confiscated the items from them.
They were identified as Ramakrishnan of Chatrapatti, Selvaraj of Periyakulipatti and Karthigaivel and Sekar of Vadakadu.
The accused were remanded to Madurai Central Prison.
Hares are protected under Schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Act.
“There are past cases of wildlife crimes against three of these men,” said a forest official.
Ramakrishnan was caught with a leopard skin and jailed in 2015. He reportedly owned an estate on the hills and hunting was a hobby for him. That case was still going on in the Judicial Magistrate court in Oddanchatram.
Likewise, Karthigaivel and Sekar were held in 2016 for poaching wild boars and they were slapped with a fine of ₹20,000. The men were habitual offenders and the country-made gun was seized from them.
The police had been informed about the incident and they were likely to file a case under the Arms and Ammunition Act for possessing illegal gun, the forest official added.