Thailand destroys 2.1 tonnes of illegal ivory

BANGKOK, August 26 (TNA) - Thailand has destroyed a large catch of seized elephant tusks, weighed about 2.1 tonnes and worth over 100 million baht, with the presence of diplomats from member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha presided over the ivory destruction ceremony, which was organised for the first time in Thailand by the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Representatives of concerned parties in both the public and private sectors, including the CITES diplomats from 31 countries, witnessed the event, in which a total of 2,155 kilograms of seized tusks, expected to belong to about 200 African elephants, were crushed into dust. The crushed ivory dust was later transported to the Bang Pu Industrial Estate in Bangkok's neighbouring Samut Prakarn Province for being burnt in an environmentally-friendly method at 1,100 degrees Celsius, together with other industrial wastes, and then mostly buried in a landfill. Part of the seized ivory tusks, 540 kilograms of them, which were also confiscated from illegal trade in Thailand, were given to the Ministry of Finance's Customs Department, Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Forestry, Mahidol University’s Faculty of Veterinary Science, the National Science Museum in Bangkok's neighbouring Pathum Thani Province and Takhli 4 Air Base in the lower northern Nakhon Sawan Province for their study purposes. (TNA)