Shahpur forest department officials on Thursday arrested eight people for setting a trap to hunt small wild animals near Khardi in Shahpur. A team of the forest division along with its range forest officer was on a patrolling duty when they spotted a few people sitting in the forest patch near Khardi. Given their suspicious behaviour, the forest officer along with its team alighted their vehicle and entered the forest patch. That's when the men began running, confirming the officials' suspicion.

Range Forest Officer Prashant Deshmukh told mid-day, "Without wasting any time, we got off our vehicle and entered the forest patch when the people started running. This was enough for us to understand that they were involved in some illegal activity. Our staff ran behind them and caught them. They soon confessed to having set traps to catch small wild animals like the hare."