coimbatore while the state forest department has controlled poaching of bigger wild animals such as tiger and elephant to a large extent smaller animals like deer hare and wild boar are still vulnerable as poachers go on a hunting spreethe recent arrest of six men who were hunting in anaikatti in the district was one of the many instances of similar arrests in the past few months according to forest officials in coimbatore erode and nilgiris at least 30 men were arrested for poaching animals in the past six monthspolice as well as forest officials say most of the arrested men are villagers they fall prey to the lure of money promised by middlemen who sell the meat and other animal productscoimbatore district forest officer d venkatesh said they had come across at least eight cases of hunting or attempted poaching in the past six months tribals were involved in all the cases some of them said it was a traditional ritual to go hunting during ceremonial occasions while others were out in the forests for meatin erode district bhavanisagar and kadambur forests are the main hunting ground of poachers arun lal deputy director sathyamangalam tiger reserve said organized poaching by racketeers have been controlled those involved in poaching incidents are all local people who hunt for meatthe villagers who have enough knowledge about the terrain and animal movement go out at night and set snares and other traps usually near water holes where the animals frequent they either wait or return the next day to get their catch more resourceful among them buy country made rifles and shoot down animalsthough there is very little evidence to suggest these poaching incidents are part of a bigger racket with a commercial motive police say there are instances where the villagers sell meat to others in some cases they have told us that they have supplied meat to even serving and retired police as well as forest officers a senior police officer said police say sometimes influential people place orders through middlemen and get tribals to hunt wild animals for meatenvironmentalists meanwhile urged forest officials not to take a lenient view just because the poachers are tribals to start with hunting by anyone including tribals is illegal said environmental activist osai kalidas adding when it comes to hunting there should not be two yardsticks for two different animals if tiger poaching is considered a serious offence the same quantum of seriousness should be applied to deer toopointing out that both habitats and prey base for wild animals were reducing he said if a deer is hunted it means that a tiger has lost a potential prey so a fall in population of smaller animals means loss of prey base for predators also when a snare is placed for a deer a leopard might get trapped in it and dieforest officials said there was no question of leniency just because the poachers were tribals or that they hunt only smaller animals we have