Three held with elephant tusks: Arrested three Alipurduar residents at the Oodlabari railgate area

SNS, SILIGURI, 8 FEBRUARY 2022: In another significant haul of wildlife articles, the forest department today seized a pair of elephant tusks and arrested three Alipurduar residents at the Oodlabari railgate area in Jalpaiguri district.

The Baikunthapur Forest Division (BED) has seized wildlife articles including pangolin scales, leopard hide, and recovered a live golden gecko and two Indian softshell turtles in less than a month.

The divisional forest officer of Baikunthapur, Hari Krishnan, said the Belakoba forest range and the mobile patrolling party under the division had jointly seized a pair of tusks and arrested three persons.

"The two pieces of elephant tusks weighing two kg--one kg each-were seized from the Oodlabari rail gate area today. Three persons have been arrested in this connection. They will be produced in court tomorrow The forest department is investigating whether they belong to any organised wildlife smuggling racket," he said.

According to forest officials, they acted on specific intelligence inputs about the sale of the tusks, and that the foresters were led by range officer Sanjay Dutta.

"They found that four persons were bargaining beside an Alto K10 car. One of them managed to give them the slip. Forest officials detained the three others and they found two pieces of elephant tusks in a bag. Each tusk is around two feet two inches long. Those were planned to be smuggled to Nepal via Siliguri. They were arrested immediately," said an officer. The elephant is protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, they said. Trade in ivory is banned under the Wildlife Protection Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Wild Fauna and Flora.

The accused persons have been identified as Mojamil Hague, Ershad Miah and Jaynal Rahman of Alipurduar.

Wildlife crime experts said wildlife smugglers usually target the illegal markets in China, Thailand, Vietnam and some other Asian countries where the demand for ivory is high.