Four wildlife poachers found grilling Indochinese tiger meat in a Kanchanaburi national park before fleeing on Sunday, turned themselves in to police yesterday.
The poachers were found by a park ranger patrol in Thong Pha Phum National Park at around 10am that morning.
The patrol first came across black smoke billowing from an area near a creek in tambon Pilok of Thong Pha Phum district, about 3-4 kilometres from the Thai-Myanmar border. Five suspects were seen grilling what looked like tiger meat at the location.
The authorities later found four of them were involved in killing at least two endangered tigers.
Upon seeing the patrol, the suspects fled, leaving piles of tiger meat and the pelts of two tigers at the campsite. The officials also found four weapons at the site. A cow's carcass, believed to have been used as bait to lure the big cats was found tied to a bamboo tree.
According to media reports, the four suspects surrendered to local police yesterday with the help of a local politician who arranged for them to turn themselves in.
At about noon yesterday, Thong Pha Phum police, led by its superintendent Pol Col Santi Pitaksakun, and Thong Pha Phum national park team took a van to pick up the suspects at the Khao Ban Rai checkpoint in tambon Pilok. They were taken to a local police station for questioning.
The four men were identified as Kookue Yindee, 37, Jorhaeng Panarak, 38, Supachai Charoensab, 34, and Rachanon Charoensab, 30.
Initially, the four told police that wild tigers had killed about 20 cows raised by local villagers over the past two months. They borrowed shotguns from defence volunteers and used the cow carcasses to lure the tigers out with the intent to kill them.
Separately in Uthai Thani, a Indochinese tiger, which came out of the Huai Kha Khaeng forest to search for food near a residential area in Ban Bung Charoen, was caught early yesterday.
Meedech Charoenkitwanarak, director of Protected Area Regional Office 12, said the tiger walked into a trap set by local authorities. It was then tranquilised and sent to Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary for a health check which confirmed the 10-year-old male tiger was in good health with a scar on its leg. A tracking collar was fitted to the animal, which will be released into the sanctuary.