The Belagavi police have cracked a racket of illegal wildlife trade and have arrested five persons, who allegedly conned buyers that deer horns were elephant tusks.
Acting on a tip-off, the city crime branch police raided houses and hideouts in Belagundi and seized Sambar deer horns.
Sambar deer is an endangered species and the traffickers face severe punishment, D.C. Rajappa, Police Commissioner, told presspersons here on Tuesday.
He added that the accused have confessed to hunting in forests and selling deer horns after polishing them and passing them off as ivory.
The arrested have been identified as Nagesh Madar, Ramachandra Dalavi, Ravindra Kolkar, Parashuram Nilajkar and Aman Kanabargi.
The horns were stored in a farmhouse belonging to one Balu Bijagarni at Belagundi. The police are investigating whether the racket occurs in other places as well, the Commissioner said.
Two years ago, during a raid on a house in Shetty Galli in Belagavi, over a tonne of horns of wild animals, tiger claws and elephant tusks worth several crores were recovered.
They had been stored for 20 years and Salim Chamdewale, a resident of Belagavi was allegedly selling them in the international black market.
