Chaibasa (Jharkhand): The forest department of Jharkhand's Chaibasa has arrested five smugglers involved in smuggling of ivory tusks (elephant teeth) from Kumhar Toli in Chaibasa town of West Singhbhum district after reacting on a tip-off on Wednesday. The forest officials have recovered ten tusks from the smugglers.
Official sources said, "A tip-off was given from Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Jabalpur, about the smuggling of dentine. On the basis of which a team of Chaibasa Forest Department raided and recovered ivory. Five smugglers have been arrested in this smuggling from Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha."
Chaibasa DFO Satyam Kumar said that "the team recovered ten elephants tusks of different sizes from a rented house in Kumhar Toli." He further said that "action will be taken against the arrested people under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972." At present, the arrested smugglers are being interrogated, he added.
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Earlier, incidents of killing elephants for tusks had come to fore after which the smugglers were nabbed by the police. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing the matter. In another incident, a wild elephant was found dead without its tusks in Latehar district under suspicious circumstances. It was feared that after the death of the elephant, the smugglers took away its tusks. With the increase in cases of ivory smuggling in the state, cases of money laundering have also increased.
