Madurai Circle conservator of forests Nihar Ranjan told TOI they obtained information about Vanaraj from Mani, another notorious poacher from Theni who was arrested last Saturday at Tirupur by a team of officials from Theni forest division. Nihar said Mani’s movements had been closely watched by the forest officials during the past few months.
Talking about the role of Mani, Nihar said he had given up participating directly in poaching activities. Instead he supplied finance and also acted as a mediator for selling wildlife trophies, especially ivory to various poaching gangs across the country.
Last year in February, he managed to procure 10 kg ivory, which was sold to a gang having international connections. Similarly in 2009, more than 27 kg of ivory was procured by him and was also sold to another gang.
All the members of the TN poaching gang have now been arrested. Kerala forest officials had arrested Nagaiah, Gubendran, Singam, Anbalagan and Babu Jose. Their Tamil Nadu counterparts arrested Mani last week and now Vanaraj. All the six members hailed from various parts of Theni district and are hardcore poachers, a senior forest officer said.