Poachers stalk elephants of Kerala after a gap of 20 years

A gang of poachers, said to have killed more than 20 elephants for their tusks, was busted by Kerala state's forest department

One of the last members of an elephant poaching gang was arrested on 27 July. The total number of poachers and traffickers behind bars is now 24. Aikaramattom Vasu, the mastermind behind the diabolical operation that claimed up to 28 elephant lives, apparently committed suicide. South Indian forests haven't seen poaching on this scale since the early 1990s.

Less than a month after Tanzania announced the catastrophic decline in its elephant numbers, Kunjumon, a former forest watcher, confessed that a gang of poachers camped in the forests of Kerala had already killed more than 20 elephants in the past 10 months. The 62-year-old had been hired as a cook and witnessed the gang's grisly business. It's not clear if he walked into a forest department office and voluntarily provided details, or if the department officials arrested him on suspicion. However, even though Kunjumon provided the phone numbers of seven poachers and named the location of their camp in Vazhachal forests, officials were slow to act. They thought he was making it up and called him mentally deranged.