Hyderabad: A tiger census exercise at the Amrabad Tiger Reserve in Telangana has led to the arrest of four alleged poachers after trap cameras deployed for the All-India Tiger Estimation 2026 inadvertently captured them on film, with the men armed with a country-made gun, ammunition and an axe.
The images were recorded on May 18 in the Allangattu forest area within the Achampet range. Officials reviewing footage from 30 trap cameras as part of the routine census exercise spotted the group and launched an investigation based on the technical evidence.
The four accused have been identified as Mudavath Balu, Dharangula Narasimha, Sariya and Pastor John Paul. All have been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and investigations are ongoing.
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A reserve rich in wildlife
Officials said that entering the reserve with firearms and ammunition poses a direct threat to its wildlife. The Amrabad Tiger Reserve is home to tigers, leopards, sloth bears, wild dogs, sambar, chital, wild boar and several other rare species.
The case is a rare instance of poaching activity being detected through census infrastructure, underlining the dual value of camera-trap networks that are typically deployed for population estimation.
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