BHUBANESWAR/BARIPADA: Days after the carcass of an elephant with the anterior of its head sawed off was found in the Baramba range under Athagarh forest division, a similar incident has been reported from the core area of Similipal tiger reserve (STR) exposing the shoddy state of affairs in the protected wildlife habitat.
As per reports, forest staff recovered the carcass of an elephant with missing tusks from Gopinathpur beat within the Pithabata wildlife range of STR south division on Tuesday. Forest officials said the poachers killed the elephant with a bow and arrow and managed to make away with the tusks. However, the extraction of tusks, in this case, looked similar to what had been found in Athagarh. Here too, the poachers removed the tusks by cutting part of the head of the sub-adult elephant with a sharp-edged tool.
While the elephant had reportedly been killed at least four to five days back as the carcass had gone into the decomposition stage, the forest officials of the heavily guarded national park didn’t have a hint about the poaching till Tuesday. Besides, the incident was brought to the fore on Thursday after the completion of the postmortem.
Deputy director of STR south division Samrat Gowda said they came to know about the killing during patrolling carried out by a group of security personnel in the Pithabata wildlife range. “Preliminary investigation suggests that the tusker succumbed to injuries due to arrow shot injury after which its tusks were removed by cutting off a portion of the head,” he said.
He said a case under Wildlife Protection Act has been registered and the investigation is in progress. Other details regarding the death of the elephant will be ascertained after the postmortem report is received.
Meanwhile, the issue poses grave questions about the safety of wildlife in the biggest tiger habitat of the state where the Forest department claims to have deployed adequate personnel for round-the-clock patrolling. The tiger reserve was under scanner over the alleged burning of a jumbo carcass by the forest staff to hide information about its poaching in recent months. The STF of Odisha police also recovered a tiger skin from the fringe area in December last year bringing more embarrassment to the department.
Experts, on the other hand also pointed out that poaching and removing tusks from two places in similar styles also means, a professional and organised syndicate of poachers and wildlife smugglers might be active in the state. However, PCCF (Wildlife) SK Popli said the investigation is in progress and it is yet to be established if any such organised network exists.
He said considering the gravity of the matter, an official of the conservator of forests (CF) rank along with officials of the joint task force (JTF) have been sent to Mayurbhanj to probe the incident and submit a report to the headquarters.STR authorities said a manhunt has been launched to arrest the wildlife offenders and recover to tusks.