Sr forest official to probe elephant deaths

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Monday rushed a senior forest department officer to the Similipal National Park to probe into the alleged death of four elephants there.
Forest minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) J D Sharma would inquire into the alleged mass killings and submit a report to the government.
Official sources said death of a calf recently had been confirmed but they were uncertain about the death of three other elephants as alleged by some wildlife activists.
The latest case of mass killing of pachyderms was reported on Sunday when a team of wildlife activists said they had found bones and remains of four elephants inside Similipal, which is also a tiger reserve, in Mayurbhanj district. Bhanumitra Acharya, an activist, said they had found carcasses of four elephants within one km radius in Ballykhal area of Nawana South range inside Similipal. Acharya and some other activists went inside the park on May 3 and dug up certain areas to recover the remains of elephants, which they suspect were poisoned to death by poachers. "We doubt field level forest staff were involved in disposing of the carcasses to suppress the mass killings," Acharya alleged.
Sharma said the allegations were "perplexing" as surveillance had been strengthened inside Similipal from January 13 (Makar Sankranti) to April 14 (Mahabisuba Sankranti) to prevent Akhand Sikhar (a mass hunting ritual of tribals) in the national park. "We had made some arrests and it is perplexing to receive such allegations," he told TOI. He expressed doubts over involvement of field level staff in burying the elephants and said, "Why should government staff attempt to suppress it? We have reported 85 and 62 elephant deaths due to various reasons in Odisha in 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively."
The latest deaths have brought back memories of 10 elephant deaths reported by Acharya and other activists in 2010.