Pic Courtesy: ANI
Belthangady: The police have successfully arrested three persons for poaching elephants for their tusks. They were arrested near Surya Road in the Belthangady taluk of the Dakshina Kannada district.
The arrested accused are identified as M A Ibrahim, Vellad Manakkal, and Ramesh K G.
A team of forest officials and Belthangady police, acting on a tip-off, made the arrest on Wednesday. They seized five pairs of tusks weighing 51.730 kg along with a Kovi and eight bullets from the culprits.
Speaking about the bust, CID, Superintendent of Madikeri Forest Division Suresh Babu informed that the team that nabbed the culprits, in one of the biggest elephant poaching cases, will be awarded soon.
Addressing the media at the Belthangady Tourism Bungalow, he said, “The culprits are suspected to have collected the tusks and kept it for three years in order to sell them.”
He added that another person named Anwar, who was at the scene to do business with the arrested accused, is currently absconding.
“Our team was successful in cracking this crucial case. Following up on the tip-off, they kept an eye on the culprits’ movements and finally nabbed them near Ujire,” he said.
Informing about the punishment to be meted out to the poachers, Suresh Babu said, “As this case falls under the Wildlife Protection Act, we have transferred the case to the forest officer of the Belthangady range. We too are working on collecting more information on the case. As of now, we are unable to estimate the value of the tusks as they are priceless.”
