VIJAYAWADA: In a tragic incident, a man in search of ‘Tangedu’ flowers to celebrate Batukamma festival died after a bomb trap set up for wild boars exploded killing him on the spot at Kanumuru forest under Gampalagudem mandal in Krishna district on Wednesday morning.The deceased was identified by the police as Gaddam Srinivas Reddy (40), native of Korlagudem of Kalluru mandal in Khammam district of Telangana. Speaking to TOI, inspector of Tiruvuru S Prasanna Veraiah Goud said that Srinivas Reddy along with three others went to the forest to pluck ‘Tangedu’ flowers as it was the main flower used in preparing Batukamma.They entered the forest between Kanumuru and Chikkullagudem area to collect the flowers. While they were going into the forest in search of the flowers, Srinivas Reddy collapsed immediately after they heard a loud sound and an iron ball hit him with in lightning speed. The ball hit him on his private parts and he died on the spot with bleeding injuries.Those along with him thought that someone shot him with a gun but later the police confirmed that it was not a gun but a bomb trap that is used to kill wild boars by the hunters. The bomb trap made with stuffing gunpowder into an iron pipe tightly and putting iron balls at the end. They will set up a trigger which will ignite the gunpowder causing the explosion which will make the iron ball to hit the targeted animal with force.Veeriah Goud further said that they identified the hunter who set-up the bomb trap as Kavati Durgarao. He was a habitual offender and earlier arrested for hunting wild animals with explosives. Srinivas Reddy’s body was shifted to Tiruvuru government hospital for post-mortem and police booked a case against Durgarao and launched a search operation to nab him.

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