The Forest Department investigating past incidents of elephant poaching in the Coimbatore Forest Division got three-days custody of two poachers and a middleman, who were part of an elephant poaching network that trafficked nearly 300 kg of ivory from Tamil Nadu between 2010 and 2015.
Middleman Babu Jose, 40, from Udumbanchola in Idukki district, poachers P. Singam, 45, and P. Kubendran, 45, from Andipatti of Theni district, were interrogated in Coimbatore. A senior official privy to the investigation said it was the first time the Tamil Nadu Forest Department interrogated the three men together in custody.
“We are expecting to elicit more information on poaching incidents they were involved in,” the official said. The court granted the custody for investigation into the poaching of three wild elephants in Sirumugai forest range in 2011.
As per a letter sent by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) to Coimbatore District Forest Officer D. Venkatesh in September, which directed him to revisit the entire elephant poaching cases in Coimbatore forest division, the trio and a few other poachers from Theni and middlemen from Kerala had allegedly sourced ivory from Coimbatore, Nilgiris north and Theni forest divisions and Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary between 2010 and 2015.
As per the WCCB letter, Jose allegedly trafficked around 300 kg of ivory from Tamil Nadu and sold it to a middleman named Aji Bright of Kerala. It said Singam and Kubendran sourced 99 kg of ivory from Tamil Nadu for him.
