Junagadh: At least five people were today nabbed by a team of forest department sleuths in connection with the recent viral video on social media, in which a terrified lioness of Gir forests in Gujarat was seen being chased by them in their speeding vehicle.

Chief Conservator of Forest of Junagadh A P Singh and Deputy Conservator of Forest of Gir-West Pradip Singh said that four people, all in private jobs in pharma sector, have been nabbed from Bhavnagar while one from Visavadar who had taken them to the jungle area has also been nabbed.

DCF Gir-West said that all of them have been booked for act alike hunting under section 2 (b),9, 50,51 and 52 of the wildlife protection act. The incident had taken place outside the Gir sanctuary in Visavadar area of Junagadh. It video went viral 4 days ago.

‘As the video showed them chasing the lioness in such a manner which could have killed her. They have been booked under sections pertaining to hunting. As the video did not contain any information or pictures of the chasers, we focused on the trail of forwarding of the video in backward sequence to reach the culprits. Apart from the five nabbed in this connection, more arrests are likely,’ he said.

The video showed a scared young lioness running full pace to save her from the high speed vehicle from which the video was shot. They kept chasing her on a road near jungle for quite some time.

The DCF said that there were some other videos and pictures found in the course of investigation which were also being examined.

Earlier, it was thought that the place of occurrence was in Amreli but DCF Amreli Shakira Begum today said that after investigation the place was tracked as Visavadar.

DeshGujarat

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