47-year-old man held in missing tusks case in Tamil Nadu
KRISHNAGIRI: The special teams of the forest department, probing a case of missing tusks of a dead elephant, on Wednesday arrested a 47-year-old man after three days of intense investigation.
The suspect is E Thammanna alias Veerappa, a resident of Erannadoddi near Urigam.
According to Hosur Forest Division Wildlife Warden S Prabhu, three special teams were formed for the purpose.
The teams zeroed in on the suspect on Tuesday, the official said. "Based on the information he shared, two tusks, hidden in a spot outside a reserve forest near Erannadoddi, were recovered, the official said.
On July 16, an elephant aged around 20 years was found dead in Bilikkal Reserve Forest in Urigam Forest Range.
A medical team that performed a postmortem on the carcass declared that the animal died a natural death. It also said that the tusks were removed after the death of the elephant, even as rumours did the rounds on social media that it was a clear case of poaching.
The suspect was booked under various provisions of Tamil Nadu Forest Act and Wildlife Protection Act.
The special teams each were headed by Assistant Conservator of Forest P Muniyappan, Wildlife Protection Wing Ranger Parthasarathy.
Another team was headed by Anchetti Forest Ranger Ravi and Urigam Forest Ranger Venkatachalam.