CUTTACK: In a significant development, the Orissa High Court on Tuesday decided to conduct an interaction session on the issue of elephant deaths and human-elephant conflict in the state, in the conference hall after court hours from 4.30 pm on September 11.
The decision was made by the bench of Chief Justice Subhasis Talapatra and Justice Savitri Ratho while hearing four PILs filed by Gita Rout (2022), Mrinalini Padhi (2015), Dwija Dalpati (2015) and Balgopal Mishra (2013) on the issue.
Accordingly, the bench asked all members of the Joint Task Force (JTF) looking into cases of poaching of elephants, counsels of the PIL petitioners and intervenors in the cases to be present on the assigned date and time.
The bench requested chief conservator of forests Manoj V Nair, who is also the convenor of JTF, to initiate the conversation and streamline the interface to find a solution to the problem. Nair was asked to come prepared to make a detailed presentation on the comprehensive action plan (CAP) and give an update on its implementation, especially regarding tackling the elephant deaths due to poaching, electrocution, and train collision.
Earlier, on August 25, 2022, the court had asked the JTF to come up with a CAP to prevent unnatural elephant deaths in the state after the state government informed that a JTF has been formed to look into the cases of poaching of tigers and leopards and illegal trade of pangolin apart from the death of elephants.
On March 13, 2023, the court was informed that the state government had approved the CAP including 17 long-term, 10 medium-term, and 158 short-term measures for human-elephant conflict mitigation, elephant habitat, corridor and connectivity, and wildlife health management.
PRE-ARREST BAIL PLEA
No relief for two accused in spurious drugs case in Angul
Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of a medicine wholesaler Hadibandhu Behera and retailer Bhagyadhar Sahu - both accused in the spurious drugs (brand Pantocid DSR) case that was detected in Angul in December last year. The special task force of the Drug Enforcement Squad had sealed the retail outlet and wholesale medicine firm, but both the owners, reportedly absconding, filed the petition for anticipatory bail. The single judge bench of Justice Chittaranjan Dash held there was ample evidence of both engaging in dealing with spurious drugs. The laboratory test of the drug apparently established it as spurious. “The allegations being serious and grave in nature deter this Court to grant pre-arrest bail,” Justice Dash observed.