States join hands to bust ivory racket

States join hands to bust ivory racket (India)
Newindpress.com
October 20, 2006

SULTHAN BATHERY: The Forest Departments of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are on a joint mission to bust a high-profile racket, based in Thiruvananthapuram, involved in smuggling ivory and tiger skin.

According to sources in Forest Department, moves are afoot to conduct a joint operation following information from two persons arrested by the Karnataka Forest team on Wednesday. Those arrested are Chekidipetta Poulose, 47, allegedly an agent involved in the trade of ivory and tiger skins, and V A Gangadharan, 37, a poacher, both natives of Gudallur in Tamil Nadu. A tiger skin and 12 kg of ivory, worth around Rs 3 lakh, were seized from them.The racket has eight more members and most of them are based in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, according to sources.

The Karnataka Forest Department personnel nabbed Gangadharan with ivory from the forest near Moolahalla on Tuesday night and acting on information gathered from him raided the house of Poulose in Gudallur from where they seized the tiger skin. The skin is of a ten-year old female tiger.The Gundelpetta court has remanded them in custody till October 30.Bandipur DFO Ranga Gowda, assistant conservator of forests Rajendra and Moolahalla range officer K Manjunath led the operations.The racket has eight more members and most of them are based in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur.

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