TIRUCHY: The Tiruchy forest department officials arrested five persons who attempted to sell elephant tusks on Friday.

Based on a tip-off that a gang had been moving with a pair of elephant tusks with the intention of selling them, chief conservator of forest A Periyasamy alerted the district forest officer C Krithika to form a special squad to nab the culprits. Based on the order, a special team was constituted, and they commenced the vehicle inspection.

On Friday, while they were inspecting the vehicles at Ramjinagar on the Tiruchy-Dindigul highway, they intercepted a car (TN 48 BZ 6779) on suspicion and conducted a thorough inspection, in which the team found that they were smuggling a pair of elephant tusks concealed in a bag. The team immediately seized the tusks and arrested five persons - N Ramasamy (65), U Tirupati (70), G Gnanasekaran (61), T Subramani (58) and T Karthik (29).

Subsequently, they were brought to the forest office in Tiruchy for further interrogation. Later, they were produced before the judicial magistrate court and were lodged in the prison.