Trade in ivory thriving in city

The Hindu
February 10, 2007
Some ivory craftsmen are suspected to be on the payroll of lawbreakers in the antique and artefact trade, writes G. Anand.
Illegal ivory trade seems to be flourishing secretly in the city. On January 17 this year, the Forest Department seized a pair of elephant tusks from the house of a suspected ivory dealer at Eenchakkal. The tusks, weighing 2.2 kg, were extracted from a young male elephant shot dead by poachers in the Adimali Forest Range recently.
On May 2004, the police seized an ivory Nataraja idol from a car at East Fort. In 2002, the Central Bureau of Investigation inquiring into the theft of wildlife articles from the Forest Department's strong room at Olavakkode in Palakkad district seized two ivory idols from the house of a suspect at Muttathara.