India:  Kenichira police in Wayanad have arrested three people for allegedly stealing camera traps installed in vested forests under Chethalath range for tiger monitoring. The camera traps had caught the trio poaching a deer.
The accused have been identified as Sumesh (41), hailing from Padichira; Rajesh (32), hailing from Pilakkavu; and Balakrishnan (34), hailing from Karakkamala.

Police said the accused, who were working in an estate at Irulam, had hunted down a deer last week from the Irulam forest station limits. “While they were coming back with the hunted deer, they were caught in the camera traps and so they stole the cameras to destroy evidence,” Kenichira police sub-inspector C Ramkumar said.
He added that incident came to light when the three were arrested in connection with seizure of illicit liquor from the estate. During the interrogation, they admitted to hunting a deer and stealing the camera traps, and the remains of the deer were also recovered from the estate, police said. The parts of camera traps, which were destroyed by the accused, were recovered, Ramkumar said.

(Source: The Times of India)