The Forest Department has arrested eight persons, including an anti-poaching watcher attached to Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), for attempting to sell elephant tusk.
A piece of tusk and a fake tusk made of wood were seized from the eight men, who landed in custody in a joint operation by members of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB- southern region), the Tamil Nadu WCCB (Coimbatore zone), and officials from the Mettupalayam forest range of Coimbatore Forest Division.
A release issued by the Department said that three men— M. Pratheesh of Keezh Kotagiri, P. Chinnapandi of Sirumugai and I. Subramani of Kannerimukku at Kotagiri— were picked up by officials from a place near an amusement park on Mettupalayam – Ooty Road on November 3.
Subsequent investigation found that Pratheesh, Chinnapandi and Y. Gunasekaran of Sholurmattam in the Nilgiris held talks with Subramani to sell the tusk at the amusement park. It was found that Pratheesh procured the tusk from K. Rajkumar of Sholurmattam. Rajkumar had sourced the tusk from S. Nanjundan of Karikaiyur at Aracode in the Nilgiris. The officials apprehended Rajkumar, Gunasekaran, Nanjundan and Y. Manoj of Sholurmattam. They also seized a fake tusk made of wood, a car and a two-wheeler from them.
During questioning, Nanjundan told officials that S. Manikandan, an APW from Bhavani Sagar in Erode district, got the tusk while patrolling an area in Vilamundi forest range of STR in 2017. He buried the tusk in the forest itself and gave it to Nanjundan when the latter contacted him for the same.
The eight men were arrested for offences under different Sections of the Wildlife Protection Act. The Forest Department team seized the piece of original tusk from the accused who were produced before a court on Monday and sent to judicial remand for 15 days.
