Elephant killed in Abhaypur

TINSUKIA: The carcass of a pregnant elephant was found lying in a pool of blood with her trunk and ear hacked off in the Abhayapur reserve forest bordering Nagaland on Thursday.
Forest officials believe the pachyderm may have fallen prey to retaliatory killing by villagers. Of late, man-animal conflicts have been on the rise
A senior forest official said, "Had poachers been involved, they would rather target a male elephant except "makhana" for the tusks.Also, only the right ear and tips of the elephant tail and trunk were missing indicating that its killers did not want its meat either," the official said.
Sources said absence of bullet injuries indicated that the elephant was a victim of retaliatory killing. People of neighbouring villages, however, said they heard two gunshots. Miscreants from Nagaland are also suspected to be behind the killing as in the past hunters from Nagaland have sneaked into the forests of Assam and killed elephants for meat and tusks. The inter-state border is about 20 km away from the place of killing.
Sources said an inter-state poaching racket flourishes between Nagaland and Assam. Even timber smugglers are in nexus with poachers. Divisional forest officer of Sivasagar Utpal Borah said the state forensic laboratory in Guwahati will ascertain the cause of death.
In December 2008, a Makhna (tuskless lone male elephant) was found dead near Deori village in Dibrugarh district. The cause of death was found to be due to poisoning, an act of retaliatory killing by humans to save their crops from jumbos.