COIMBATORE: Officials of the Coimbatore forest division began investigation about the missing tusks from an elephant carcass at Kariyan Padugai forest coming under the Boluvampatti forest range on Sunday. The staff of Boluvampatti forest range noticed a pair of tusks missing from an elephant carcass suspected to be aged between 25 to 30 years.
“The animal could have died 40 days ago with most parts of flesh eaten by wild boars and porcupine. We have recovered only the animal’s skeleton,” said the District Forest Officer TK Ashok Kumar. The DFO said that the team did not recover tusks from the carcass as it was missing and another team was formed to investigate the case.
Boluvampatti forest range officials registered a case under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and further investigation is on. It is suspected that the poachers could have stolen the tusks from the dead animal.
This is second case in which poachers have stolen the tusks from dead elephants in Tamil Nadu in the recent months.
A 35-year-old tusker was found dead with tusk missing at Sadayanparai, Udumalai forest range in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), on August 3. In connection with this, two tribals have been arrested and search is on for two others. Officials of the Coimbatore forest division said that information will be obtained after arrest of the accused.