Six men were held by the forest department on Tuesday for attempting to tell tiger skin at Vettaikaranpudhur, near the Anamalai Tiger Reserve.

The accused were identified as M Pravin of Anamalai, P Manikandan and M Sabarisankar of Odayakulam, and D Mayilsamy of Sethumadai and his sons, M Udaykumar and M Rameshkumar.
Based on a tip-off, forest department officials checked a car and found the dead animal’s skin.

It emerged that Mayilsamy had stolen the tiger skin from his employer Prasanth, of Vettaikaranpudur, when he was working as a domestic help, 15 years ago. Mayilsamy was also arrested along with the rest and remanded to judicial custody.