Guwahati : The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized 24 pieces ivory weighing of 5.838 kg from two persons at Guwahati railway station on Saturday, officials said on Sunday.
The market value of the recovered ivory is around Rs 35 lakh.
Acting on specific information, the DRI team had intercepted two persons at Guwahati railway station on Saturday evening.
The interception took place as the recipient of the ivory Suraj Kumar Singh hailing from West Bengal was in the process of receiving the package from Badrul Hussain hailing from Hojai district of Assam.
Suraj Kumar Singh is a contractual employee of Railways working as a coach attendant of Saraighat Express.
During interrogation, the two persons revealed that Badrul Hussain had picked up the package containing ivory from a person at Hojai and was supposed to deliver it to Suraj Kumar Singh, who would have in turn delivered it to another person at New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal who would have smuggled it to Nepal through the border townships at North Bengal.
It has been confirmed by the Wildlife officials that, the recovered tusks have been extracted after killing at least five adult and sub-adult elephants and since the ivory has been sourced from Hojai, it is believed that the elephants were in all likelihood killing in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam.
DRI had seized 12.410 kg of ivory from a bus at Siliguri on February 15 this year.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
