14 country-made guns found in a stream in Dindigul

As many as 14 country-made guns were found in a stream in Thavasimadai near here by the Dindigul Taluk police on Friday.

On September 12, the Forest Department officials had arrested four persons including a mechanic working with the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation here and seized a country-made gun from them. They had confessed to making these weapons in a private lathe.

The Dindigul Superintendent of Police, Ravali Priya, had recently warned of stern action against violators and instructed the police to check on trespasses into reserve forest areas in the district. She had also told the people to surrender weapons without licences.

The district, which has a wide range of forest reserves touching Sirumalai, Adalur, Panrimalai and Kodaikanal among others, has been under the police scanner in recent months. While the farmers in these hamlets complained about the threat from wild animals, which destroyed their produce and farm, the poachers, in connivance with some field staff from the police and forest departments, indulged in trespass and gunned down rare birds and attempted illegal acts. The carelessness on the part of the farmers’ has even claimed their lives in the past due to stray bullet injuries.

Stepping up the vigil, the forest and police department officials, with the help of anti-poachers teams, had recently appealed to all the farmers and the general public to surrender their weapons, especially if they were unlicensed.

DSP Vinodh and a team seized the 14 country-made guns and inquiries are on in nearby villages. A case has been registered.