COIMBATORE: Officials of the Coimbatore forest division are yet to make any breakthrough in the probe into the theft of tusks from an elephant that was found dead in at Kariyanpadugai on October 23. Curiously, both tusks were recovered on October 28 afternoon 430 metres from the spot where the skeleton of the male elephant, aged 25 to 30 years, was found. Forest department officials suspect that culprits might have dumped the tusks fearing action.
Sources said they could not track down the culprits as the rain had washed away fingerprints from the tusks. "We checked the forest cover thoroughly but could not find the tusks. Two sniffer dogs that were deployed to locate the tusks also failed. The reason could be that 40 days had passed since the elephant died and the carcass was eaten away. The dogs could not pick up scents due to incessant rain," said TK Ashok Kumar District Forest Officer, Coimbatore. "We have formed four special teams and conducted inquiries with a few suspects. We hope to crack the case soon," he added. Sources said that one of the teams went to Kerala in search of the accused.