Five kilograms of elephant ivory, rhino horn seized in Jalpaiguri

The Forest Rangers seized five elephant tusks and a part of a rhino horn during a raid in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri city on Tuesday.

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Acting on a tip-off, the Forest Rangers conducted a raid in Malbazar area of the city. Five men were also arrested on charges of smuggling.

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Ranger, Belakoba Forest Range, Sanjay Dutta, said that the smugglers had planned to sell the banned products to neighbouring Nepal.

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"These things were being smuggled to Nepal. This rhino horn weighing 150 grams was to be sold for rupees 2.5 million and the elephant tusk was to be sold for rupees 1,00,000 per kilogram. They had five kilograms of elephant tusk so they would have got rupees 5, 00,000," said Dutta.

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Dutta added that the tusk and the horn would have eventually landed in China from Nepal.

While elephant ivory is widely used for making showpieces, rhino horns are used for medicinal purposes in China.

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Elephants are often poached for their tusks in India, which is 50 to 60 percent of all of Asia's wild elephants and about 20 percent of the domesticated elephants. Increased illegal poaching over the years has led to endangerment of the species.

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On the other hand, the rhinos too are an endangered species due to their rampant poaching.