Bhubaneswar: As many as 245 elephants have died during the last three years (2019 to 2022) in Odisha, Forest, Environment and Climate change Minister Pradip Kumar Amat told the State Assembly Tuesday.
Replying to a question from Soumya Ranjan Patnaik (BJD), the Minister said six of the 245 elephants were killed by poachers. However, no tiger died in the state during the period, the minister said.
He said during the period 47 accused were arrested on the charge of poaching elephants, smuggling tusks and smuggling of body parts of tigers from nine districts.
As many as 39 tusks, one tiger skin, and nine tiger nails were seized from their possession.
The poachers were arrested from Angul, Balasore, Boudh, Cuttack, Deogarh, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanja and Sonepur.
The highest number of 16 tusks were recovered from Keonjhar while 12 were recovered from Mayurbhanj. The tiger skin and nail were seized from Kalahandi, the Minister said.
UNI