57 elephant ivories destroyed in Bankura

Kolkata: The forest division of Bankura district on Tuesday destroyed 57 elephant ivory that were under their safe custody for almost a decade. The ivories of the pachyderms were charred in an electric furnace under strong surveillance of the Forest department officials at Barjora.

The elephants cross over from the Dalma side in Jharkhand and sneak into Bankura in search of food. The jumbos stay back in Bankura forests and their movement is a common phenomenon and so, elephant death occurs due to natural reasons or illness or for other factors too.

As per rules, the bodies are burnt at the very spot of their death. However, though the body of the elephant gets burnt, its ivory remains intact.

In apprehension of illegal trading of the tusks, the forest officials severed the tusk of the elephant before setting the corpse on fire. In the last ten years, the Bankura Forest Division had stored 657 such ivories from Bankura south, Bankura north and Bishnupur forest division.

In a new act passed in April 2023, elephant ivory should not be used for any purpose and the ivory under the custody of any Forest department should be destroyed by them.

The three divisions of the district united and in a specially temperature-regulated furnace burned the tusks at Barjora in presence of senior forest officials of the district.