Berhampur: Wildlife personnel on Sunday arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly poaching birds in Chilika Lake at Abhimanpur in Tangi range of Chilika wildlife division. “Four carcasses of two species of birds were seized from his possession,” Amlan Nayak, divisional forest officer at Chilika wildlife division, said.
The accused person was identified as Manoj Parida of Ujala Gopinathpur.
The seized bird species included spot billed duck (three), a scheduled animal under the Wildlife Protection Act and a pheasant tailed jacana. Wildlife personnel caught him when the accused person was carrying the carcasses on a motorcycle to the market for sale. They also seized the motorcycle.
Nayak said the poacher is suspected to have poisoned the birds in the lake. “After conducting a post-mortem, the birds have been buried. Their tissue samples will be sent to the Centre for Wildlife health in Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology and to the state forensic laboratory, Bhubaneswar for toxicological analysis,” he added.
This was the third poaching case in the last 10 days in the lake and the fourth case in a month.
On July 10, wildlife personnel had arrested a poacher near Bhusandpur and seized 18 carcasses of four bird species. On July 3, two bird poachers were arrested at Deipur under Tangi range. The carcasses of 14 birds of two species – Grey headed swamphen (14) and water cock (one) – were seized from the duo.
“Patrolling has been intensified in the lake with existing staff as they strictly keep a watch on the movement of poachers,” Nayak added.

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