KARACHl: Allegations of elephants tusk theft on Thursday emerged at the zoo where the staff was accused of gradually cutting off elephant teeth, sources told Dawn.

What is lending credence to the allegations is the fact that the elephants pair (a male and a female) at Safari Park, which is of the same species with one of them younger than the elephants (both females) housed in the zoo, has grown eightto 14-inch-long prominent tusks. In case of the zoo pair, however, they are not visible, the sources said.

All animals, brought from Africa in 2009 under a controversial deal, age between nine and 10 years.

`Everyone knows that elephant tusk fetches a high price in the global market but a few would know that powdered ivory is also valuable as it is used in traditional medicines,` said an animal trader.

He added that it was possible to cut off teeth from a live animal.

The elephants, he said, at the zoo were very attached to their mahout (trainer).

Dr A.A. Quraishy, the founder of both Karachi Zoological Gardens and the Safari Park, said he had never heard of such an incident earlier. `The information needs to be thoroughly investigated,` he said.

He explained: `Tusks are not just defence tools for these majestic mammals but they also help elephants in digging, stripping bark and moving things out of the way. They never stop growing.

When contacted, additional director for zoo Syed Aqeel Tazeem Naqvi initially said the zoo elephants didn`t have tusks because they were still babies and females.

But when he was told that the Safari Park also got a female elephant, which was younger to the zoo elephants, with visible tusks, he came up with a different reason.

`Their teeth were slightly broken a few months ago when the animals hit against the cage grilles,` he said.

`These pieces are with us and anybody who is making an allegation can see them, he added.

Meanwhile, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation officials along with the local bodies and information minister formally opened a newly built elephant enclosure at the Safari Park.