US seizes elephant ivory worth $2 million

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US seizes elephant ivory worth $2 million

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New York authorities have announced the seizure of elephant ivory worth $US2 million.

13 July,2012 05:43 pm

Two Asian jewellery stores were also charged with selling items containing the illegal ivory.Poachers should not have a market in Manhattan, said District Attorney Cyrus Vance.It is unacceptable that tusks from elephants wind up being sold as mass-produced jewellery and unremarkable decorative items in this city.The owners of Raja Jewels and New York Jewelry Mart Corp pleaded guilty to counts of illegal trade in wildlife.They agreed to forfeit the ivory and donate a total of $US45,000 dollars to the US Wildlife Conservation Society.Vances office cited statistics provided by Traffic, a wildlife monitoring organisation, that show 24 tonnes of elephant ivory had been seized around the world in 2011, the largest amount in two decades.The sale of ivory has been banned since 1989.Elephant conservation groups say more than 8500 elephant carcasses were found between 2002 and 2011 at 49 monitoring sites in 27 African countries.The groups said Thailand and China are the largest buyers of ivory.