chennai hundreds of narikuravas in the city and its suburbs have come under the police scanner after a member of the community was arrested on monday along with a carpenter in selaiyur near tambaram for possessing unlicensed firearms police are also preparing a list of unlicensed riflebuyers in the city state intelligence sources said there was evidence that some narikuravas were producing firearms with outsiders help we suspect that many unlicensed firearms have been sold to outsiders who used them for poaching a police officer said he said only a few carpenters knew the art of riflemaking a few use these guns as decorative material while others use them for poaching police said police sources said the crude rifles usually a single barrel muzzle loaders were made of iron and wood its a simple technique but some of them are misusing them a police officer said producing any type of gun and repairing it with out a licence are illegal according to the indian arms act 1959 the narikurava a nomadic community the police officer said was badly affected by the unofficial ban on entering the city and used countrymade rifles for poaching some of them could be involved in illegal activities he added a few narikoravas in the camp at paduvanchery near tambaram admitted producing guns but refused to talk about selling most of us have turned ragpickers and loaders while some are employed as sanitary workers so we can say that poaching is no longer our job and we are in no way connected with guns paduvanchery narikuravas association secretary m raju 60 told toi the single barrel muzzle loader usually preferred by narikuravas is not a safe weapon say experts the loading process is unsafe the small bullets have to be pushed in through the open barrel said r manikandan a mechanic at a private armoury in chepauk a researcher familiar with narikuravas says there are more that 1000 of them in ten settlements including at pallavaram avadi kotturpuram and tambaram in the city and its suburbs for years they have been making guns but never use their skills for illegal purposes professor bhakthavatsala bharati who published a book vaagri material culture about the community said