Elephant deaths: Probe begins to identify causes

The committee that is constituted by the state government to probe the wild elephant death has already begun its work.
Committee head Shekhar Kumar Niraj, who is also additional principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), said they have discussed various issues/aspects to be covered to ascertain the facts and reasons for the death of pachyderms in the state.
The committee has experts from various walks of life - Ajay Desai from Bengaluru, Sivaganesan from Chennai, C Arivazhagan, managing trustee of Indo-American Wildlife society in Chennai, and veterinarians N Kalaivanan, A Pradeep and D Boominathan from World Wide Fund for Nature-India, Coimbatore.
They would look into habitat condition, annual death rate of elephants for the past 15 years, population trends, migration pattern and cause of death of each elephant, and compile data.
The committee had requested forest officials in Coimbatore to send certain information and the forest division had also responded to the same. “We are, however, awaiting more details from the division, based on which we will start analysing the details and preparing a report,” the official said.
Niraj said the movement of committee members was restricted because of the lockdown. “Once it is relaxed, they can travel and gather more information. The deadline for submitting the report is this December. However, owing to prevailing conditions, gathering details itself will take longer time.”