Daijiworld Media Network – Beltangady (EP)
Beltangady, Sep 19: Puttur Special Forest Mobile Squad (FMS) personnel, in an operation undertaken near Ujire, seized ten elephant tusks weighing 51 kg which were found to have been illegally hidden inside a house on Doojirige on Surya road here on Wednesday September 18. Three suspects stand arrested in this connection.
The department had information about the fact that tusks had been stored in the region since the last three months and the accused were searching for willing buyers.
The personnel have arrested Surya temple road resident, Abraham M A (56), Suresh Babu (49) from Kerala, and Ramesh K G (31) from Kabbatti Cross in Kachaya revenue division in Hassan district. It is learnt that during the operation, another accused, Anwar from Mangaluru succeeded in escaping.
The shed inside a rubber plantation on Surya Road where the tusks were found stocked, belongs to Abraham. The raid was conducted at 1 pm on Wednesday. The tusks taken into custody were ten in numbers, weighed 51.730 kg and estimated to command price of around once crore rupees. A double barrel gun and eight rounds of ammunition were also found from the spot.
The arrested accused persons are being questioned about the source of the tusks. As per the information, the accused got the tusks from Kerala and also by killing elephants in the local forest area. There is suspicion that one or more of the elephants would have been shot dead by poachers in Neriya Puduvettu area, and investigation is on.
One of the suspects is said to have worked in the Gulf region in the past and got involved with procuring of tusks and selling them. Beltangady range forest office is looking into the matter.
The operation was conducted under the guidance of CID forest squad Bengaluru additional director general of police, Dr Raveendranathan, CID forest Mangaluru superintendent of police, Suresh Babu and Mangaluru special forest mobile squad police sub-inspector Purushotham, in which Beltangady range forest officer, Subbayya Naik along with staff of Puttur forest mobile squad and others also participated.