Baripada: There seems to be no let-up in elephant deaths in Similipal Wildlife Sanctuary in Mayurbhanj district as the decomposed carcass of another tusker was recovered, Sunday. Tusks were missing from the highly decomposed corpse of the pachyderm recovered Sunday at Bankadihi area under Talabandha forest range of North division inside Similipal Tiger Project of the sanctuary.
On being informed, regional field director of Similipal Tiger Project T Ashok Kumar reached the spot with forest officials and launched an inquiry. Deputy Director of Similipal Tiger Project Sai Kiran and forest officials and veterinarians conducted a post-mortem of the carcass. It is suspected that the tusker might have been killed by poachers 10-15 days back as the tusks are missing from the carcass. The carcass of the tusker has been found at a time when there is growing concern over elephant casualties in the state. It is alleged that the poachers are sneaking inside the sanctuary and poaching jumbos and Royal Bengal Tigers despite round-the-clock patrolling being undertaken by the forest officials.
The Orissa High Court had last month observed that 2022 was perhaps the worst year for elephants in the state. The HC made the observation while hearing a case about elephant poaching by three forest officials in Similipal Tiger Reserve. An elephant had been poached for tusks and three field staffers who had burnt the carcass to destroy evidence December 7 were later arrested. The matter came to the fore after the residents informed the forest officials.
Former honorary wildlife warden Bhanumitra Acharya did not rule out the involvement of forest officials in the tusker death as earlier they were similarly found involved in the death of another elephant. Notably, the Forest department recently submitted a 10-pillar strategy to the Orissa High Court containing a ‘Comprehensive action plan for the conservation of elephants and mitigation of human-elephant conflict in Odisha.’