Elephant tusk seized in Bengal's Siliguri, two arrested

Three pieces of an elephant tusk were seized in West Bengal's Siliguri by DRI officials and two persons arrested, an official said on Monday. The elephant tusk was carried from Assam to Siliguri for smuggling out to Nepal, said the official of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).

"Based on specific intelligence input that an elephant tusk would be carried from Assam to Siliguri on a private bus for smuggling to Nepal, officers of DRI intercepted the vehicle in the Mallaguri area in the early Thursday," a statement said. The tusk, weighing 12.41 kg, has a total length of 0.86 metre and a girth of 0.36 metre and it was cut into three pieces for ease of packaging and transportation, the DRI official said.

"The two drivers of the vehicle confessed to carrying the elephant tusk at the behest of one person, a resident of Kolkata, for smuggling into Nepal," it said. "The elephant tusk was seized and the two drivers - Saiful Islam, 45, from Assam's Dejoo and Santosh Pradhan, 35, of Siliguri were arrested for smuggling of wildlife parts," the DRI said.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the elephant was poached in the forested areas of Arunachal Pradesh or Assam 5-6 months ago, it said.

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Five arrested over elephant killing in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan police have arrested five men for allegedly killing a wild elephant, with officers seizing ivory and tusk-cutting tools, officials said Friday. Villagers in the island’s northwest had alerted wildlife authorities after a popular local elephant called “Dala Poottuwa”, or crossed tusker, disappeared.

Its carcass was later found with a bullet wound in the skull. Authorities broke up what they say is a poaching network as part of their investigation, charging five men with killing the elephant. “They had in their possession several tools used to cut tusks (and) two ivory pendants,” said police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera.

Elephants are protected under Sri Lankan law and poachers can face the death penalty for killing one. Tusked elephants are rare in Sri Lanka, accounting for less than five per cent of the island’s estimated elephant population of around 6000. That figure has declined from the last official census of the island’s elephants, which identified more than 7300 animals.

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