Gundlupet: The Forest Department officials and staff have arrested five persons who were trying smuggle two elephant tusks near Basavapura village on Mysuru-Ooty NH 181, coming under Gundlupet Buffer Zone and have seized the elephant tusks from them.

Those arrested are 35-year-old Rangaswamy of Aanegatti village, 41-year-old Sanjeev Kumar of Sokkanahalli village, 36-year-old N. Vinuth of Mainelya village, 45-year-old Katiresan of Vinayagapuram and 44-year-old Selvanayagam of Polawadiprivu, all in Tamil Nadu. The five accused were smuggling the tusks in the car (TN-43-K-9367), which has also been seized.  A case has been registered against all the five accused and have been remanded to judicial custody.

Bandipur Project Tiger Director Dr. P. Ramesh Kumar, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) G. Ravindra and Range Forest Officer (RFO) N.P. Naveen Kumar guided Deputy Range Forest Officers (DRFOs) Mudduraj, Bharat, Kiran Kumar, Ramesh Matapati, Sripal, Shivakumar, Praveen Kumar and Siddu Ari, Forest Guards Nagendra, Nagesh, Kumar, Abhilash, Parasappa, Shankar and Srikanth, drivers Raghavendra, Abdul Haneef and Suresh in the nabbing and seizing operation.