Jaldapara (Alipurduar), July 9: Forest officials in Coochbehar busted an international racket of smuggling animal parts following the arrest this afternoon of three people from whom a piece of an elephant tusk was recovered.

A team of forest officials ? led by the assistant wildlife warden of Jaldapara, Anjan Guha ? had been keeping an eye on a gang of poachers for a week, said the Coochbehar divisional forest officer, Manindra Biswas.

Two poachers who had surrendered two days ago tipped off the team that the piece of tusk would be smuggled to Bhutan today. “Based on that information, we arrested Nani Das and Ekramul Haq, who were carrying the tusk in a bag, from the Salkumarhat area,” said Biswas at the Jaldapara East range office.

Samir Roy, an accomplice of Das and Haq who was to carry the animal part into Bhutan, was also arrested. The piece of tusk was to be sold for Rs 50,000, said a forest official.

“The tusk is that of an adult elephant and we hope to recover the other parts that were to be smuggled,” Biswas said.

“We have already got the name of a person who was to buy this piece of tusk in Bhutan. We are certain that this gang has often smuggled animal parts to Bhutan,” Biswas said.

The forest official said the gang operated mainly in the thickly forested areas of the northeast and felt today’s arrests would help the department learn about other poachers. “Those arrested have given information that will go a long way in helping us tackle poaching,” he said.