Endangered?

Jamshedpur, Dec. 8: Ram Narayan Viswakarma and his wife Usha, who were arrested from Sundernagar last month with 21kg of ivory in their possession, will undergo narco tests to help forest department officials understand the extent of ivory smuggling in the country.

The forest department, with the help of the district police, will shortly move Jamshedpur civil court, to seek permission for the narco test.

Divisional forest officer of Saranda S.R. Natesh said Viswakarma, one of the main links in the network, was not revealing relevant information. “We tried everything to get Viswakarma to reveal more, but he is not cooperating. So we are left with no option but to opt for a narco test,” said the DFO.

Natesh, who is monitoring the probe, said the accused couple had divulged a number of names and telephone numbers of persons involved in ivory smuggling. He said forest officials were now verifying the information.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the wildlife expert said ivory smuggling was well entrenched in the country and several bigwigs were involved in the business.

“What we want to know is the source of ivory that the accused were carrying. Viswakarma gave out the names and numbers of several people involved in the trade, but did not reveal the source of the material,” said the DFO.

“The network of smugglers stretches from Assam to Kerala and from Orissa to Uttar Pradesh,” Natesh added.

The police had taken Viswakarma and his wife into remand for 48 hours on December 4, when wildlife experts from Varanasi, Mumbai, Orissa and Jharkhand grilled the couple. However, the information they managed to extort from the duo was not adequate.

Natesh said the forest department was not interested in prosecuting Viswakarma and his wife, but rather wanted to unravel the complete network of ivory smuggling so that those involved in the trade could be put behind bars.

Dozens of tuskers are killed every year in Simlipal National Park in Orissa, Saranda forest in West Singhbhum and in the jungles of Purulia and West Midnapore in Bengal. The forest department suspects that an organised racket operates in the region.