Illegal guns are booming along the forest fringes of Kerala posing serious challenges to wildlife.
The Forest Department has seized 83 country-made guns, gun powder and pellets during the search operations carried out since last year. Hundreds of cases have been booked in this regard.
While the hunters, who landed up in the custody, were mostly found using country guns manufactured by local iron smiths and air guns. One 0.375 Magnum gun was also seized. The Magnum gun was seized by the officials of the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary this year.
The largest number of seizures were made in the Eastern Forest Circle, Palakkad, covering Palakkad, Mannarkad, Nenmara and Nilambur South and North Divisions where 18 such guns were picked up.
“Besides the guns, 1,075 pellets, 370 g gun powder and 147 cartridges were seized by the department in 2019 and till May this year. The real extent of the spread and use of illegal guns can be much higher. Besides the threat for wildlife, there exists the possibility of these fire arms being used for all sorts of illegal and criminal activities,” said Surendrakumar, Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala.
According to K.K. Sunilkumar, Divisional Forest Officer, Mannarkad, the guns could cost anything between ₹25,000 and ₹50,000 as revealed by those arrested in the cases. Seizure of guns mostly happened while investigating poaching cases or attempts of poaching. It was the single shot guns that were seized in all the cases, he said.
Some guns were powerful enough to kill animals with one shot, said M. Rajeev, Divisional Forest Officer, Kozhikode. In some cases, the iron smiths at Nilambur reportedly manufactured these weapons for the poachers.
It is mostly deer and wild boar that are targeted by the poachers. They add small pieces of steel wires to the gun powder to make instant kill. In a few cases, gun powder was found sourced from some quarries, he said.
The single largest seizure of guns had taken place in 2015 when the department picked up around 30 guns while tracking the Malayattoor elephant poaching case, said an official.
Once the guns are seized, the cases are handed over to the State police for prosecution. The department has already sounded the State Police chief about the issue and the possibility of misuse of gun powder from quarries and licensed traders in the wake of the death of a pregnant wild elephant in Palakkad district, said Mr. Surendrakumar.