Baripada: In an untoward incident, some forest personnel of Udala range were attacked by over 20 local villagers at Jamudiha area in Mayurbhanj district Tuesday night.
According to sources, the staffers were returning to the Udala range office with two guns and Sambar meat seized from a wildlife poacher in Jamudiha village after conducting a raid.
Around 70 poachers from the village had gone for hunting to Similipal National Park earlier in the day. The hunters killed two Sambars and had shared its meat among them.
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Acting on a tip-off about the incident, a team of forest personnel raided the village leading to seizure of two guns and over 30kg of Sambar meat from the house of a poacher, a forest official stated.
Later, Jamudiha villagers hurled stones on the forest personnel when they were about to return. The villagers smashed the vehicle of Udala range office. They even thrashed the staff and took a gun away.
At around 11.00pm in the night, a forest staffer managed to escape and inform Udala police seeking their help. The police swung into action and rescued the forest team from Jamudiha and recovered the damaged vehicle.
PNN