Customs sleuths on Guwahati airport have confiscated an Ahmedabad-bound parcel containing ivory when it was about to be loaded into an Ahmedabad-bound Spicejet flight. The ivory pieces, weighing 3.450kg, were found concealed under paddy husk inside the Speed Post parcel which was booked from Silapathar in Dhemaji district of Assam and it was destined for Ahmedabad.

“Acting on specific intelligence, officers of the anti-smuggling unit of Guwahati customs division seized three pieces of elephant tusk at Guwahati airport this morning,” S.R. Baruah, commissioner of customs (preventive), Northeast, said.

Superintendent of customs (anti-smuggling) D.C. Bania said in the records of the postal department, the name of the consignee is written as Mahesh T. Shah of Choksi Bazar at Visnagar in Mehsana district of Gujarat.

“The three pieces were of the same tusk and efforts are on to recover the other tusk of the pair,” he said.

Customs sleuths suspect that the tusk is of an adult Asiatic elephant poached somewhere in the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh.

The value of the tusk is estimated at Rs 10.35 lakh in the domestic market.However, its value is likely to run into crores of rupees in the international market.