The Puttur Range Forest personnel on Saturday arrested six persons from Tamil Nadu and Kerala for alleged illegal transporation of ivory.
According to a press release, the personnel were tipped off transporation of ivory. While checking vehicles near Mahaveer Hospital Junction, off the Mani Mysuru Bypass road, the personnel found two ivory pieces in a vehicle registered in Tamil Nadu. The total value of ivory and of the vehicle is ₹5 lakh.
The arrested identified as Shashikumar (35), Satish (30), Vignesh (34), Vineet (35), all from Tamil Nadu and Sampathkumar (33) and Ritesh (35), from Kerala. Deputy Conservator of Forests Y.K. Dinesh Kumar said that four accused persons from Tamil Nadu left Mamalapuram with two ivory pieces few days ago and came to Thiruvananthapuram. Two from Kerala joined and the accused persons left by road to sell the ivory pieces to a person in Mangaluru.
Mr. Kumar said that the department is considering deeper investigation to find the source of ivory and also about other forest offences these accused are involved in.
The forest department team was led by Range Forest Officer Kiran and it included Deputy RFO S.N. Lokesh, Shivanand Acharya, B.T. Kumaraswamy, Mahaboob Prasad and forest guards Ningaraj, Sudheer, Satyan, Deepak and Umesh.
