AP man selling deer antlers in Bengaluru city arrested

Bengaluru: Bengaluru south sub-division police arrested a person for illegally possessing 24 sets of deer antlers, the police said.

According to the police, the arrested is identified as M. T. Rajshekhar Naik aka Shekhar (28), hailing from Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh.

"He was carrying 24 sets of deer antlers in a gunny bag and was trying to strike a deal with passers-by on a footpath in front of City Institute, Bengaluru. He had come with his wife to meet his in-laws, who reside nearby H.S.R. Layout," the police explained.

The police added that the accused had been hunting as he lives near forest areas adjoining Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. "He is from a tribal area and he hunts deer in this forest range for the last couple of years due to unemployment. He had been illegally hunting these endangered animals, therefore he has been booked under 1972 Wildlife Protection Act," the police said in its statement.

A police officer observed that the major difference between horns and antlers is that horns don't shed and are almost always a permanent part of the animal.

"Antlers are made of bone and have a velvet phase, in which blood is supplied to the antler to help it grow. Before breeding season each year, the velvet dries up and is rubbed off," the officer explained.

According to a wildlife conservation blog, the antlers of a buck are the fastest growing tissue in the world. After shedding old antlers, the new ones begin to grow almost immediately and can grow more than one inch per day.