By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The theft of five elephant tusks from a forest department store in Uttarakhand’s Laldhang range has revived the debate over the need to periodically destroy accumulated ivory stocks, with wildlife experts suggesting that the state should consider adopting the practice followed in the United States to prevent valuable wildlife articles from remaining in government custody indefinitely.
The experts cited the example of Denver in the US, where several tonnes of ivory, including seized stocks and ivory voluntarily surrendered by members of the public, were destroyed using industrial crushing equipment as part of a campaign against the illegal ivory trade. They argued that keeping seized ivory in forest department stores for years not only creates security and monitoring challenges but also increases the risk of theft and illegal diversion.
The theft in Laldhang has also raised questions about security arrangements at forest range stores across Uttarakhand. Two forest department officials have been suspended and a Van Gujjar arrested in connection with the incident.
Wildlife experts said every forest range has a store where seized articles and other material are kept. Over the years, such stores have accumulated ivory and other wildlife articles recovered during enforcement operations or following the deaths of animals such as elephants. While bulky items are generally kept within range office premises, precious articles such as ivory are supposed to be secured under lock and key.
“There are only two possibilities. Either the person responsible for safeguarding the articles has been negligent or there has been collusion with those who took them away. Collusion appears more likely than mere negligence, although the exact circumstances of this particular theft are not known,” a senior Forest Department official said.
Drawing a parallel with vehicles deposited at police stations and articles kept in police station storerooms (malkhanas), the official said the disappearance of seized articles from government custody pointed to a serious failure of the system.
Uttarakhand has 183 territorial forest ranges, each having a range-level store where seized articles and other material are kept, according to experts. They said the theft should prompt a comprehensive review of security arrangements at these facilities.
“The annual inspections and physical verification of stocks, which are already part of the system, need to be strengthened. The Forest Department should make better use of available technology, including CCTV cameras, to ensure proper monitoring and prevent thefts,” the official said. He added that the tusks could have been transported in a sack or bag.
The experts, however, cautioned against any move to reopen or liberalise ivory trade, saying that legal trade could provide opportunities for illegally sourced ivory to enter the market.
They pointed out that international concerns over ivory trade stem from its role in driving elephant poaching and the decline in elephant populations. Large consignments of smuggled ivory continue to be seized internationally, particularly along routes leading to Southeast Asia, with much of the illegal supply originating in Africa.
“Allowing legal trade could make it extremely difficult for enforcement agencies to distinguish between legally held old ivory and newly smuggled ivory,” the official said.
Citing a Supreme Court judgment on India’s ivory trade restrictions, the experts said the court had rejected the argument that restrictions should apply only to Indian ivory and not to ivory originating in Africa. The principle was that ivory should be treated alike, irrespective of its geographical origin, they said.
“Once you create an exception for one category of ivory, you open a backdoor through which illegal trade can be legitimised. It would become extremely difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal stocks,” an expert said.
The experts maintained that the priority should be to strengthen security at forest range stores, conduct regular physical verification of seized wildlife articles and consider the systematic destruction of accumulated ivory stocks, subject to legal requirements, rather than allowing them to remain in government custody indefinitely.