CUTTACK: Taking serious note of the death of three elephants due to electrocution in poachers’ trap at Naktideul under Rairakhol forest division of Sambalpur district, the Orissa High Court on Tuesday directed personal appearance of PCCF-Wildlife on November 26.
Initiating suo motu proceedings on the matter, the division bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Savitri Ratho said, “The PCCF-Wildlife is required to be present online and furnish to the court the number of deaths of elephants in Odisha reported from 2020 till date disclosing the known reasons for their deaths by way of an affidavit. He shall also disclose in the affidavit the steps taken to investigate the cause behind the death of the three elephants reported in today’s (November 19) newspapers.”
The bench posted the matter to 2 pm on November 26 for further consideration while directing to list along with it the three PILs highlighting the deaths of elephants that are pending in the court.
Three elephants including a calf were electrocuted after coming in contact with electric trap that had been laid by poachers to hunt wild boars in wee hours of Monday. While the adult elephants, both females, were aged between 35 and 40 years, the male calf was around three to four years old.
They were part of a herd of 11 elephants that had been roaming around the Naktideul forest range since the last few days. The elephant carcasses were first spotted by villagers near Buramal forest at around 5.30 am. The joint task force (JTF) has taken up investigation into the three elephant deaths.
Earlier, during the adjudication on the three PILs, the state government following orders of the court had constituted the JTF to look into cases of poaching of tigers and leopards and illegal trade of pangolin apart from the death of elephants in August 2022.
Subsequently, on court orders, a comprehensive action plan (CAP) was drafted and approved by the state government in March 2023. The CAP included 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.