CHENNAI: The two pieces of elephant tusks that went missing from the ivory stockpile of Vandalur zoo were reportedly stolen almost three years ago, according to wildlife officials.
The theft allegedly took place in 2021-22, and it was an insider job. This was disclosed by Parthiban, an ex-zoo worker, and the fifth accused arrested in connection with the ivory theft by authorities a few days back. In a confession statement, Parthiban reportedly said that he along with Satish alias Appu, the prime accused in the case who is still at large, stole two pieces of tusks nearly three years back while carrying out painting works, sources told TNIE.
Because the two tusks weighed just 1.1 kg, and there were over 1,200 tusk pieces weighing 1.83 tonnes in total in the ivory stockpile, the theft went undetected all these years, a zoo official said. However, questions are being raised about the quality of bookkeeping and periodical enumeration of ivory stock. “If proper periodical ivory stock enumeration was carried out, the theft would have been detected long back,” another official said.
Vandalur Zoo is currently in the process of destroying the entire stock by December 2. Recently, zoo director Ashish Kumar Srivastva and chief wildlife warden Srinivas R Reddy appeared before Madras high court and informed there was difficulty in destroying the stock, citing a ban from the centre. The forest bench posted the matter to December 2.