At a time when the state is under fire for its "inaction" about the escalating incidences of the incidents, forest department officers in Odisha on Friday detained a 40-year-old criminal implicated in at least eight cases of elephant poaching.
According to officials, local police assisted them in apprehending Sk Rajak from his village in the Khurda district.
He admitted to being involved in the unlawful shipment of elephant tusks from the Badamba region of the Athagarh Forest Division to Kolkata. He has also given more information about people responsible for ivory trafficking and poaching in the Athgarh division, according to Sudarshan Gopinath Yadav, the DFO for Athagarh.
Since a baby tusker was recently killed in the Athagarh division, the Union Environment Ministry requested a report from the state government outlining the measures taken to combat poachers.