Madhya Pradesh: Five forest officials booked for burning elephant carcass
Five forest officials of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) have been booked under Wildlife Protection Act for destroying the evidence of the death of a wild elephant burning the carcass, officials said.
Madhya Pradesh: Five forest officials booked for burning elephant carcass
The incident took place in November last year but came to light after wildlife activ Ajay Dubey filed a complaint on January 11 this year.
Delhi Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) had last week regered a case against a forester, forest guard and three forest watchers for burning the carcass of a dead wild elephant and later burying the ashes in six deep pits with grinded bones to hide the death of the animal, said an official of WCCB, who didn’t wish to be named.
A WCCB official said the state special task force was investigating the matter as the reason behind the steps taken the forest officials is yet to be known.
“The forest officials said they found the semi-decomposed body of the elephant in Chhatwa village of Panpatha buffer zone of BTR in Shahdol in November 2022. They got scared of action higher officials for failing to monitor the death of a wild elephant, hence they destroyed all the evidence of death,” said the official, adding that the statements of the accused were found unsatisfactory.
After the regration of the case, an investigation has been launched to know the actual reason behind this step after a wildlife activ filed a complaint of poaching of the elephant, said another WCCB official.
MP chief wildlife warden JS Chauhan confirmed the incident and they have launched a thorough investigation into the matter.
Activ Dubey, who is also the complainant, said the matter was probed only after he complained to the union environment minry and National Tiger Conservation Authority.
“I submitted the complaint with photos and videos. It was a matter of poaching only and forest officials hatched a conspiracy to hide the matter,” he said.
“This tragic incident certainly puts a question mark on the security arrangements in BTR. It is known to all that for many years the maximum number of tigers in India have been hunted in Madhya Pradesh, and BTR is at the top, but despite this, there was a lack of patrolling and monitoring due to criminal negligence, which led to the hunting of elephants and burning of evidence,” added Dubey.
As many as 40 elephants had come to Madhya Pradesh from Chhattisgarh in the past three years and made colonies here at BTR in Shahdol and Umaria.
The state’s forest department has also come up with an action plan to deal with the wild elephants after eight people were killed allegedly a herd.
