Ranchi/Jamshedpur, Jan. 31: A pair of elephant tusks, weighing approximately 32kg, were recovered late last night from Dalma sanctuary with the help of a sniffer dog and forest officials believe they have scuttled an attempt to smuggle out the ivory valued at Rs 40 lakh in the open market.
While the forest department did not think the recovery was a pointer to an established poaching racket in the sanctuary, officials are, however, fairly certain there must have been an attempt to smuggle the tusks since they had been sawed off and later found 4km away from where they had spotted a dead elephant on January 29.
Ranchi divisional forest officer (wildlife) Kamlesh Pandey said a massive search operation was launched after they heard about the dead elephant. Finally, after a painstaking search, they zeroed in on the 60-year-old at Kutlun range, 20km from Dimna Lake, which is about 8km from Jamshedpur.
He said as a precautionary measure, the search operation would continue throughout the Dalma sanctuary that spans an area of 196sq km, spread across East and West Singhbhum in Jharkhand to Purulia and Bankura in Bengal.
This was the first recovery made by sniffer dog Tracy, a German Shepherd adopted by the forest department to detect wildlife crime about two years ago along with another — Tiger — who was deployed at Palamau Tiger Reserve.
“We learnt about the dead elephant on January 29. It took us time to scour the jungles around Kutlun and finally we were able to spot the elephant. But, we saw that both its tusks had been chopped off,” Pandey said.
Search operations were launched immediately and Tracy, who was with her partner Tiger in Palamau, brought back to help. “Massive combing operations were launched in all the villages within the area of the reserve. It took us a full day to locate the tusks,” he added.
They were recovered 4km from the dead elephant in the forests of Kutlun with the help of a few members of Gram Suraksha Samiti, a group dedicated to protecting the forests.
Pandey is pleased with the effort, especially because they were able to recover the ivory relatively quickly. “A few years ago, around two to three elephants were found dead in Chaibasa and their tusks were never recovered. This time, our response seems to have been terrific,” he said.
According to the divisional forest officer, they would not be lodging FIRs against individuals as the tusks were recovered from deep inside the forest and not from a person or group.
“A post-mortem conducted on the dead animal has revealed it died of natural causes. But, we are fairly sure that some people were trying to smuggle out the tusks,” he said, adding that they must have given up the idea because of the full-fledged combing operations that had been launched.
According to a recent animal census, there are 127 elephants, including calves, in the sanctuary.
Chief wildlife warden A.K. Gupta said they had preserved the viscera of the elephant. “We will know the exact cause of death only after a chemical examination of the viscera which will be conducted at Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun,” he said.
He said the elephant had leg injuries which were natural during the migratory season when elephants cover a lot of distance.
The forest department has now decided to station Tracy in Dalma for now. She had been sent to Palamau as they did not find much use for her in the elephant sanctuary.
“Tracy was sent to Tiger, her partner at Palamau Tiger Reserve, as she had no work here. However, for now, we have reversed our decision,” Pandey added.
