Kolkata, Aug 4 (IANS): Three people were arrested and five pieces of elephant tusk were seized from them by the forest department in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, an official said on Tuesday.
The arrests and seizure were made at Phulbari in the district near the India-Bangladesh border on Monday night.
"Acting on tip off we intercepted a vehicle in which the smugglers were travelling. We have arrested the trio of Gautam Kirkee, Ashok Thapa and Piyush Bose. From their possession we have recovered five pieces of elephant tusk," said Baikunthapur forest division ranger Sanjay Dutta.
Incidentally Thapa is the son of a forest guard at the Buxa Tiger Reserve.
"We are yet to ascertain from where they got the tusk but interrogation so far has revealed that they were trying to smuggle out the tusks to China where it is in big demand for medicinal purposes and fetches very high prices," added Dutta.