COIMBATORE: Officials of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) arrested five persons, including two temporary staff of the Tamil forest department, on charges of trying to sell two elephant tusks at Thaimudi Estate near Valparai on Saturday.
The arrested persons are Manikandan (47), Raja (39) and Devabala (45) of Thaimudi Estate. The temporary staff of the forest department are Premdass (29) and Raman (35). A car used for transporting tusks was seized.
"The length of the tusks is more than five feet. Manikandan retrieved the tusks from a dead elephant in the reserve forest in Valparai. Four others, including our temporary staff, helped him. We arrested them after we got a tip-off that they were trying to sell the tusks. Manikandan is the mastermind. He was involved in a similar poaching case," said a forest official.
Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, the official said: "Manikandan lured the temporary forest staff by offering to pay them a good amount after a deal on the sale of tusks. He asked them to inform him about elephant deaths. They obliged and alerted them about an elephant death. Thereafter, they took away the tusks from the carcass of the elephant. This likely occurred a few months ago. We are also investigating the involvement of others."
The arrest of the temporary staff will be a lesson for other staff and will help prevent such incidents in the future," the official noted.