Ivory theft from Pangode military establishment catches Forest department off guard

The Kerala Forest department, which had earlier declined a request of the Pangode Military Station, Thiruvananthapuram, to obtain wildlife articles, including ivory, in its safe custody, has been caught off-guard by the reported theft of two ivory pieces from the Officers’ Mess of the station the other day.

The department was unaware of the possession of ivory at the military establishment.

Though the Kerala government was earlier in favour of handing over the articles to the military establishments, it had to backtrack following the objection from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Incidentally, the government had cleared the requests from the Pangode station and the Grenadiers RC for obtaining 10 pairs each of elephant ivory and antlers and 10 mount/horns in its safe custody in 2024. The State government was in favour of handing over three pairs of ivory and antlers from its strongroom to the Madras Regiment. Later, the 4th Battalion of the 8th Gorkha Rifles approached the department for two pairs of ivory to be displayed at its units. However, the Union Ministry reminded the State government and the department that the Wildlife Protection Act and its rules “do not provide for handing over the wild animal articles/trophies which are the property of the State government, to anyone, including for safe custody.”

The Ministry had also pointed out that the trophies had to be “disposed of in accordance with the Wild Life Disposal of Wild Animal Article Rules, 2023 by way of incineration.” Huge quantities of wildlife articles, including ivory, are stored at the Forest department’sstrongroom in the State headquarters and various offices. The protection and management of the ivory has turned out to be an expensive and cumbersome affair for the department, according to the officials.