Two men were taken into custody by the Kushalnagar Forest Department on Saturday for allegedly trespassing into a protected forest and killing two wild gaurs. The arrested individuals have been identified as 26-year-old Askar from Kudugadde in Guhya village and 34-year-old Vinod Kumar from High School Paisari in Siddapur.

Forest officials revealed that the primary suspect in the case, Suri Subrahmanya—also a resident of Kudugadde in Guhya—is still at large and believed to be the one who fired the fatal shots.

According to the initial investigation, the accused illegally entered the Avaregunda Reserve Forest, which falls under the Kushalnagar Range, and shot dead the two gaurs in the last week of April. Residents of the nearby village reportedly heard gunfire during the night but were unable to intervene as the culprits fled the scene in a vehicle, leaving behind the dead animals.

Range Forest Officer Ratan Kumar registered a case, and a dedicated investigation team was formed under the direction of Madikeri Deputy Conservator of Forests Bhaskar, Assistant Conservator Gopal AA, and Ratan Kumar himself.

The arrested duo was tracked down and apprehended over the weekend. However, the vehicle involved in the crime—registered under the name of a man named Pazhil—remains untraced. Efforts to locate both the missing vehicle and the absconding shooter are ongoing, officials confirmed.

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