Sambalpur: Forest officials were caught on the wrong foot after a Special Task Force (STF) of the state Crime Branch recovered the half-burnt skeletal remains of two tuskers from Kolagaon reserve forest and Tabaloi jungle under Dhama forest range in this district, Sunday. The incident comes eight months after forest officials ruled out poaching following recovery of a tusker skeleton from Munder jungle under Sadar forest range in the district.
Preliminary investigation on the bones indicated that the tuskers were adults and within their forties with the incident taking place some months back. The ashes have been washed away in the rainwater but the fragmented pieces of bones remain on the spot without getting destroyed. While large pieces of bones were recovered from one place, the bones recovered another place were small in size.
When contacted, divisional forest officer (DFO) Biswanath Nilambar said he was aware of the development and can only comment on the issue after visiting the spots and going through the reports prepared from all aspects. Subhendu Mallick, honorary wildlife warden, alleged that there have been reports of killing of seven tuskers in Sambalpur forest division. He said that the poachers have taken away the ivories after killing the tuskers at Kolagaon and Tabaloi jungles under Dhama forest range and the forest officials were allegedly trying to suppress the incident.
Large pieces of bones and ashes have been recovered from the spot while forest officials have burnt down the carcasses to destroy the evidence. Mallick said the poachers abandon the carcass after taking away the ivories.
However, the forest officials often burnt the carcass or bury it on the spot without conducting a post-mortem, Mallick alleged. The forest department also committed the same mistake here while there is a need to initiate legal action in the incident, Mallick added. The recovery of the half-burnt remains of the two tuskers is indicative that forest officials are allegedly trying to suppress the poaching of elephants. The half-burnt remains have been sent for examination to the laboratory of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar and the truth will be revealed after availability of the post-mortem report. Notably, Orissa POST had published a report about recovery of the charred remains of a tusker carcass from Dumberchuan inside Munder reserve forest under Sadar forest range, October 19, 2021.
The forest officials recovered the burnt remains of elephant skeleton and sent them for examination to the OUAT laboratory. However, forest officials have been telling since then that the report is yet to be available to them.