Chennai : A poacher referred to as Junior Veerappan was arrested in his native village in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

Saravanan Gounder (45), pursued by a Karnataka Special Task Force (STF) in the

M M Hills region for five days, was tracked down by the Tamil Nadu police in Oonjakorai, Mettur taluk.

Karnataka Forest Minister Ramanatha Rai had ordered a search after forest employees briefed him about Saravanan’s reign of terror in the M M Hills Wildlife Sanctuary area.

Caught a fortnight ago for poaching, Saravanan and a gang of about 20 had attacked forest guards and escaped.

The STF, comprising a small contingent from the Tiger Task Force in Bannerghatta, had combed the area under his sphere of influence. It has now come to light that he had slipped away into Tamil Nadu.

Saravanan, known to be as elusive as the dreaded Veerappan, is known to flee to Tamil Nadu every time the Karnataka authorities are hot on his heels.

Karnataka Forest and police personnel were in touch with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu and had sought their support to nab the poacher.

Police took him to the Kolathur station and later shifted him to an undisclosed location.

They even refused to go on record that they had arrested him. “We are only verifying his history sheet, which is a routine procedure,” said Mettur DySP M Ravikumar.

Reports indicate officials from Kollegal in Karnataka are on their way to Kolathur. Whether the Tamil Nadu police will hand him over was not disclosed.

Saravanan is one of the many small-time poachers in the post-Veerappan era to follow his methods to loot the dense forests straddling Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Saravanan’s modus operandi recalls Veerapan’s. A sharp-shooter and an astute hunter, Saravanan headed a gang of 20 skilled hunters. He was allegedly supplying bison and deer meat to the illegal but well-organised wild animal meat market.

According to the Karnataka Forest Department, Saravanan has killed six tuskers in one year.

He is said to be generous in sharing his booty with poor villagers around his native village and had become an arbiter of disputes.

Saravanan is a history-sheeter with 15 cases registered against him in the Mettur area.