Two people have been arrested in Tamil Nadu's Rameswaram for killing crows and selling their meat to roadside stalls as chicken.

The incident came to light when a couple of pilgrims at a local temple noticed the crows dying while feeding them rice that devotees usually offer the birds. They immediately alerted the police, who found that the crows were being fed with liquor-laced rice by the poachers and were then crammed inside a sack until they became unconscious. The men reportedly did so instead of seizing the crows using a net in order to avoid suspicion. They allegedly mixed the crow meat with chicken meat before selling them to the stalls.

The accused have been arrested and police have retrieved over 150 dead crows from them. The officials are further investigating the issue and tracking down the stalls the meat was sold to.