After tusk seizure, probe on into poaching

After preliminary inquiries, the officials believe that some Forest Department staff too have been hand-in-glove with the ivory smuggling gang in shooting down elephants and to bury them clandestinely inside deep forests.

Acting on a tip-off that a 30-year-old tusker was killed and its ivory were taken out before burying the carcass of the animal in Urigam forests near Anjetty, a team of officials inspected the spot and held inquiries.

It then emerged that two more elephants were killed for their tusks in the nearby forest areas over the last two months. An official said that the poachers had shot down the elephants using country-made gun.

“Killing of three elephants in a short span of two months has exposed the prevalence of rampant poaching and illegal wildlife trade happening in this locality. It should be the handiwork of an interstate gang comprising not less than 10 persons. We suspect some staff from the Forest Department to have aided in poaching of elephants for their ivory,” said an official.

Poaching of elephants for their tusks has become a regular menace in Denkanikottai forests. Two tuskers were killed by poaching gangs in 2012 and 2013, while two elephants were killed in 2014. A few months ago, the Forest Department busted a gang involved in ivory trade in Denkanikottai area.

Poaching gangs were active in this part of Tamil Nadu as hundreds of elephants usually camp in the dense forests in Denkanikottai Taluk in the Krishnagiri district.