Meet Jose Louies, Manu Sathyan And Amit Mallick, The Real-Life Heroes Who Inspired 'Poacher'
Amazon Prime Video's new web series Poacher has caught people's fancy. Do you know that the series whose story revolves around the Kerala Forest Department and how it nabbed down the criminals running an illegal ivory smuggling racket is based on a true incident called Operation Shikar? Not just that, the crime drama created by?Richie Mehta and produced by Alia Bhatt shows prominent characters based on real-life people with whose help 72 people were arrested in the elephant poaching case.?
All you need to know about Operation Shikar that inspired Amazon Prime Video's 'Poacher'
Operation Shikar was carried out between 2015 and 2017. The investigation led to the arrest of 72 people in an elephant poaching case. The arrest included elephant poachers, government officials, carvers, and high-end ivory art dealers -- all of whom were involved in the ivory smuggling racket. The Kerala Forest Department seized 464 kg of ivory artifacts worth Rs 13 crore in the international black market.?
It came to light that the traffickers were paying the local hunters to kill the elephants in the darkest corners of the forest for their tusks, which were sent to the local carving artists. The finished products were then sold to art dealers and brokers across the country who dealt with national as well as international clients.?While Operation Shikhar confirmed the killing of 28 tuskers, it is said that the real number is quite higher than this.
Real-life?Mala Jogi, Alan Joseph, Neel Banerjee are based on real-life people!
Mala Jogi is inspired by?Manu Sathyan
The character of Mala Jogi is inspired by?DFO of the Kerala Forest Department Manu Sathyan.?Richie Mehta revealed that the character of Mala Jogi is inspired by Manu, who along with many other forest officers, worked closely with the Kerala Police Department to arrest the poachers and middlemen in Kerala. The character is an amalgamation of several officers working together on the case.
When a forest watcher Kunjumon Devasey (named Aruku in the show) complained to the Police station about the poaching case, Manu was working as a range officer. After the case, he was promoted to the position of DFO. Manu has been working as a forest officer for about 20 years now.
Alan Joseph is inspired by?Jose Louies
The character of Alan Joseph is inspired by a real-life IT engineer from Kerala named Jose Louies, who worked closely with the Kerala Forest Department as a representative of the Wildlife Trust Of India (WTI). Jose teamed up with Manu Sathyanto nab the middlemen involved. As he traced their phone call records, he reached the bigger players sitting at the top. With this information, he managed to nab Eagle Rajan and Delhi-based art-dealer named Umesh Aggarwal. Jose Louies is a wildlife enthusiast who has keen interest in snakes and bees. As seen in the Amazon Prime Video web series, he runs a popular website and often advises doctors or patients about the correct anti-venom medications.?
Currently, he is working as Joint Director and Chief of Wildlife Crime Control under WTI, Delhi.?
Neel Banerjee is inspired by?Amit Mallick
The character of Neel Banerjee is loosely based on Dr Amit Mallick, who teamed up with Surendra Kumar to assemble a dedicated task force in order to swiftly apprehend the criminals. Unlike shown in the web-series, Mallick wasn't suffering from any life-threatening illness.?
Currently, he serves as the IGF, second-in-command at the National Tiger Conservation Authority. In this role, Dr. Mallick remains dedicated to safeguarding the country's tiger population, actively working towards the overarching goal and garnering recognition for his efforts.
Poonam Verma, Ravi Don, and Morris Finn are also inspired from real-life people
These characters were inspired by real-life people who?ran the ivory smuggling racket in Kerala back in 2015.
For more news and updates?from the world of??OTT, and?celebrities?from?Bollywood?and?Hollywood, keep reading?Indiatimes Entertainment.
