Following the recent hunting of spotted deer near Alangulam by a DMK functionary and his friends and subsequent arrest of the culprits and seizure of firearms from them, the Department of Forest has asked individuals possessing unlicensed firearms to surrender them to avoid registration of cases and legal consequences.
In a statement, District Forest Officer R. Rajmohan has said the Department of Forest, based on intelligence collected by forest personnel, has decided to launch extensive search across the district to seize unlicensed firearms like rifle, pistol and revolver, which can be used for hunting. Those who possess unlicensed firearms should surrender them to the Forest Range Officer concerned before November 30 to avoid registration of cases against them and subsequent legal consequences.
Those who want to deposit the licensed firearms with the forest department can also do so. Moreover, the individuals owning wildlife trophies should also surrender the same to to the Forest Range Officers concerned.
Those who want to surrender the licensed / unlicensed firearms and wildlife trophies may contact tenkasidfo@gmail.com or District Forest Control Room (04633 – 233550), Forest Range Officers of Sivagiri (04636 – 298523), Puliyangudi (04636 – 235853), Kadayanallur (04633 – 210700), Courtallam (04633 – 298190), Tenkasi (04633 – 233660) and Alangulam (04633 – 293855).
Anyone having knowledge about the unlicensed firearms or wildlife trophies can also contact these numbers and the informers’ identity will be closely guarded secret, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the forest department has deployed teams to monitor elephant movement and prevent the wild animals from entering ranches at Vadakarai and chase them back into the reserve forest. Farmers who notice the entry of wild elephants into farms may alert the forest department so that the nearest team will rush to the spot to chase the animal back into the jungles, the DFO said.
Published – October 04, 2025 07:25 pm IST
