Elephant tusk buried in wall for 4 years, cracks open Chhattisgarh's Gariyaband wildlife crime

RAIPUR: A broken 10-cm elephant tusk allegedly picked up from a field by one person and quietly sealed inside a house wall of another for four years, has blown open a suspected wildlife crime trail in Chhattisgarh's Gariyaband dist. The seizure, small in size but serious in implication, was made during a targeted raid by the anti-poaching unit of Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR) in Kulhadighat village. The trail dates back to 2021, when a man named Gangaram from Mainpur area had allegedly found the tusk in a paddy field and passed it on to a villager, Sukhchand in Kulhadighat village inside the tiger reserve. In Sep 2022, Gangaram was killed in an elephant attack near the same field and compensation was given by the forest department. Now, the tusk was retrieved out of the wall of the house of one Padhman. Investigations so far suggested a chain that the tusk was found by Gangaram who passed it on to another person Sukhchand, and now it has been found from Padhman. Adding another link, another accused was Pusauram, who is Gangaram's son and was earlier arrested in a wildlife crime case, appears to be a major link between a nexus and accused. USTR deputy director Varun Jain said that the department has arrested Sukhchand and Pusauram and are questioning Padhman, who allegedly intended to preserve it and eventually profit from it. The recovery also included bows, arrows, slingshots, a bird-hunting bow, and remains of a wild boar, pointing to a pattern of hunting activity rather than an isolated offence. Officials say an unverified but crucial angle is also under probe—that the tusk may belong to an elephant that got trapped in marshland and died, with its carcass still untraced. "There are inputs that the elephant may have drowned in a swampy patch. It is also suspected that Gangaram could have cut the tusk using a saw. These aspects are under verification," Jain said. Forest teams are now planning to excavate a pond in Mainpur where the elephant died while a dog squad has also been deployed to track other evidence. A forest offence case was registered under provisions of the wildlife protection Act. Officials say the case may be bigger than it appears. "The concealment, the timeline and the attempted sale suggest this could be part of a larger wildlife trade network," they said.