Int'l poachers active in Orissa, show dead tuskers

Over 40 elephants are reported to have died in the state since April 2006, and hand of international groups is evident, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Nov 29, 2006, 22:10:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

After tigers, the elephants have caught attention of poachers, especially in Orissa.

Of the 40 elephants deaths reported in Orissa since April this year, half have reportedly been killed by poachers. And, in all these cases, the tusks and other essential parts of the elephants were removed in the most gruesome manner, which experts say can only be the handiwork of poachers.

In some cases, usage of new tools to excavate the tusks have also been observed, which indicates the involvement of international ivory smuggling rings.

In the last ten days alone, six elephant deaths have been reported, of which four are believed to be result of poaching.

These deaths have been reported from Puranakote, Mahulkhulia forests and Kuldiha wildlife sanctuary. Alarmed by the sudden surge in poaching cases, the Orissa government has asked the state crime branch to investigate the huge number of elephant deaths.

The wild of Orissa turning unsafe for elephants could be gauged from the fact that only nine elephants were killed by poachers in 2005.

"In the past four-five months, relatively higher number of elephant killings have been reported," said Biswajit Mohanty, Chief Wildlife Warden of Orissa.

But, he was quick to add that the forest department has taken precautionary measures and has beefed up security in areas frequented by elephant. "Surveillance of each elephant is being provided and locals are being involved for protecting them," he said.

But, the news of poaching from Orissa has come as a bolt from blue to wildlife conservationlists and officials of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

A team of Wildlife Institute of India and officials from Indian Institute of Science are being dispatched to analyse the situation.

The government has also alerted other elephant reserves in the country and have instructed them to improve security measures. "Few cases of poaching of elephants are regularly reported from all parts of the country but Orissa's situation is disturbing," said an official in Project Elephant.

Ashok Kumar, chief of Wildlife Trust of India, termed the situation in Orissa as alarming. "It was only in 1996 (when 23 elephants were poached) that poaching of elephants of such a magnitude was reported. It indicates resurgence of ivory demand from countries like Japan, which the consumption is huge," he said.

An expert in elephant ecology, Professor Raman Sukumar of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, agreed with him and said it appears an international smuggling ring has become active in Orissa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Check India news real-time updates, latest news on Hindustan Times and more across India.