Bijapur: Forest officials raid astrologer's house recover Tiger, Blackbuck's skins, claws

Vartha Bharati | 21-10-2020 | 17:33:00 IST

Bijapur: The District Forest officials on Wednesday arrested one person and seized skins of Tiger, Blackbuck, and Tiger's claws from him.

Acting on a tip-off the forest officials, raided the house of accused Mahesh Hiremath, who is said to be an astrologer and allegedly involved in the acts of black magic. The officials recovered these banned wild animal objects from the house of the accused, which according to them are highly expensive in the black market.

Speaking to reporters, Ashok Patil, District Forest Officer (DFO), said that, according to their knowledge this is for the first time in history they have seized the skin and claws of Tiger in the district. "We suspect that two more people are likely to be involved in the crime, who have possibly sold the skin to the accused. We have launched the search operation to nab them", he said.

He added that the case has been registered under the Wild Life Protection Act 1972 which attracts up to seven years of imprisonment. The raid was conducted under the guidance of DFO Ashok Patil.

BP Chauhan, Assistant Forest Conservator Officer, Prabhulinga Buyara, Regional Forest Officer, and other staff of the forest department were part of the raiding team.

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Chennai devotee donates electric bus to TTD in Andhra

16-05-2026 ¦ 16-05-2026 IST

Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple, Tirumala (Image Courtesy: Wikipedia, Gemini)

Tirupati (PTI): A Chennai-based devotee on Saturday donated an electric bus to TTD, which the temple body promised to utilise for freely ferrying pilgrims.

Vardhaman Jain handed over the keys of the bus to TTD additional executive officer Ch Venkaiah Chowdhary.

"Jain donated an electric bus to TTD on Saturday morning," said an official press release from the temple body.

The donor performed special prayers for the bus in front of the Sri Venkateswara temple.

TTD is the official custodian of Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple, considered the richest Hindu shrine in the world.