Poacher follows the Kerala Forest Department as they uncover poaching incidents taking place under their nose.
In Poacher, when a resident of Malayattoor, Kerala, reports that he is involved in elephant murders, the Kerala Forest Department realizes that, unbeknownst to them, a gang is secretly poaching in their regions.
If the elephants in Kerala vanish, within a few years, the ecosystem of the state will collapse, and Kerala will become as polluted as Delhi.
To make sure none of that happens, Neel Banerjee, Chief Wildlife Warden and Field Director, takes over the case. During the investigation, Neel’s team discovers the presence of another gang in this poaching case.
By the end of the series, Neel’s team successfully catches the first gang they were dealing with, carries out the largest ivory raid in the history of the country at a safe house in Delhi, and arrests up to 74 different individuals involved in poaching.
The real-life incidents
Poacher is a fictional story, but the events depicted take inspiration from real-life incidents.
In 2015, in Malayattoor, Kerala, a local forest watcher named Kunjumon Devasey confessed his involvement in the killing of over 20 elephants to the Kerala Forest Department.
This marked the beginning of the state’s biggest investigation into elephant poaching and the ivory trade, which involved multiple gangs and transcended borders.
Richie Mehta came across the case while working on a project with Google. The Wildlife Trust of India shared a video about an ivory raid in Delhi with them, which prompted Richie to make a series on it.
The arrest of Poonam Verma and the seizure of her ivory stock in the show resemble the arrest of Umesh Aggarwal, referred to as the Sansar Chand of the ivory trade.
The cops raided his house in Laxmi Nagar, Delhi, after intercepting the call records of his middlemen arrested in Kerala.
However, much like in the show, the cops discovered fake ivory. The cops eventually got Aggarwal to confess. Aggarwal revealed that he shifted a large amount of ivory to a safe house in Jaffarabad, in north-east Delhi.
Also Read: Poacher review: Less of poachers, more of cop drama