Uttarakhand elephant tusks theft: man arrested over five tusks missing from forest storeroom
A court in Kotdwar remanded the accused to judicial custody for 14 days after Tuesday's arrest.
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A man was arrested on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, for allegedly stealing five elephant tusks weighing 35.41 kg from a storeroom of the Lansdowne Forest Division in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district, officials told PTI. The Uttarakhand elephant tusks theft was found in October during a state-wide audit, and the case now has its first arrest.
How the Uttarakhand elephant tusks went missing
The accused, identified as Ghulam Mustafa alias Nanu, 34, a resident of Gaindikhata in Haridwar district, was arrested in a joint operation by the forest department and police, according to the PTI report. The allegations against him are yet to be tested in court.
The discovery was made during an audit of seized or recovered elephant tusks conducted across all range offices in the state, following directives from the Central Zoo Authority. When the theft first surfaced, ThePrint reported on 2 November, also quoting PTI, that forest officers in the Lansdowne Forest Division made the discovery on a Saturday.
Key numbers
- Five tusks went missing, with a combined weight of 35.41 kilograms, according to officials quoted by ThePrint.
- On 1 November, Sudhir Kumar, sub-divisional forest officer of the Lansdowne Forest Division, lodged a formal complaint at the Yamkeshwar police station in Pauri Garhwal district, PTI reported.
- On 4 November, a formal case was registered at Kotwali Kotdwar under Section 305(E) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
- A court in Kotdwar remanded the accused to judicial custody for 14 days.
What police and forest officials recovered
Based on information provided by the accused, authorities recovered a broken lock from the storeroom and a piece of iron rod allegedly used to break it, the PTI report said. The accused was produced before a court in Kotdwar on Tuesday.
The reports do not say whether any of the five tusks have been recovered.
Background: the audit and the inquiry
The audit that exposed the theft was ordered after the Central Zoo Authority issued directives on seized and recovered tusks, and it covers all range offices in Uttarakhand. In its 2 November report, ThePrint said a departmental inquiry committee, chaired by the divisional forest officer of the Haridwar Forest Division, had been constituted.
The same report said a zero FIR was registered at the Yamkeshwar police station, and that the case was being transferred to the Kotdwar police station.
For another Uttarakhand administrative story this week, see our report on the state employment officer who took voluntary retirement.
What happens next
The accused remains in judicial custody for 14 days. The Uttarakhand elephant tusks case now moves through the Kotdwar court, while the departmental inquiry and the police investigation into how the tusks left the storeroom continue.
The loss of 35.41 kg of tusks from a government storeroom was found only because the Central Zoo Authority ordered an audit of every range office in Uttarakhand. The reports do not say whether any of the five tusks have been traced, so recovery of the missing material is the next test for the police and the forest department.