BHUBANESWAR: As incidents of elephant deaths and poaching in recent months have raised serious questions about Odisha’s wildlife conservation measures, a high-level committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) visited the State to inquire into the cases and submit its report to the Centre.
The three-member committee was headed by a retired IFS officer and former PCCF (Wildlife) of Kerala Surendra Kumar. Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist Bilal Habib and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) joint director HV Girisha were the other two members.
The team that held a meeting with PCCF (Wildlife) Shashi Paul and other forest officials on August 27, visited Athagarh forest division to probe the incidents of jumbo death and recovery of carcasses. It also visited Satkosia and Dhenkanal divisions to inquire about the elephant deaths reported in their jurisdiction in recent times.
Sources said, during its visit to the divisions, the team questioned the field staff of some of the sections where elephant deaths were reported and recorded their views. It also collected details of elephant deaths in the State in the last five years as well as the details of cases filed by the forest department and the status of ongoing investigations into organised wildlife crimes.
The high-level committee that completed its investigation on Sunday will also visit Jharkhand to probe elephant deaths in the neighbouring State and submit its report and recommendations to the Centre by September 10.
Notably, the State has reported around 20 cases of jumbo deaths in the last three months including the recovery of four elephant carcasses from Athagarh forest division in June and the death of three elephants due to gunshot wounds in Athagarh and Sambalpur divisions in June and July.
At least three cases of elephant deaths due to electrocution, two from Keonjhar and one from Dhenkanal, were also reported this month. At least five forest staff in Athagarh have also been arrested in connection with the suppression of information about elephant deaths.