Kathmandu, Apr. 27: A molar tooth of an ancient elephant which police seized during a house raid in the capital a couple of months back was handed over to the Department of Archaeology (DoA) today.

Experts said that the elephant, archidiskodon planifrons, existed during a period between three to one million years ago.

The tooth was discovered in Bhakta Bahadur Shrestha’s house at Putali Sadak, police said. Having received a secret information that Shrestha was involved in drug trafficking, the Special Squad of Police led by the Chief of the Department of Investigation SP Prajwal Shamsher J. B. Rana had carried out search in Shrestha’s house for the suspected heroin.

The police, instead of finding the narcotic, came upon the white substance whose archaeological value they never knew until it was tested in the Central Forensic Lab of police. “We did not know what it was and were least concerned about its value in the beginning,” said Superintendent of Police Rana.

After having established that it was a fossilised bone of an ancient animal, the tooth was sent to DoA for further test, he added.

Zoologist Bhaiya Khanal at Natural History Museum, however, said that the tooth was yet to undergo chemical test for its exact dating. He informed that they had a similar type of tooth already in their collection. “By studying the literature of such fossils we have, we came to the conclusion that it belonged to an ancient species of elephant and that its existence dated back three to one million years.”

Shepherds had found the tooth in a forest at Godar Chisapani of Dhanusha district, which later Shrestha took to his home in Putali Sadak in Kathmandu, police quoted Shrestha as saying.