50 Elephants Die In Odisha In Last 11 Months: Biswajit Mohanty
04 December, Bhubaneswar
Gajah Bandhu, an organsiation working for the protection of elephants in Odisha today alleged that as many as 50 elephants have died in the state during the last 11 months of which 29 cases were found to be unnatural deaths.
Gaja Bandhu Convenor Biswajit Mohanty told mediapersons here that though 14 elephants were killed by poachers during the last 11 months and not a single culprit has been arrested due to lack of effective intelligence network.
He said, “there was no visible improvement in safety for elephants despite allocation of crores of rupees in the budget for elephant protection.” The death of wild elephants in Odisha is very high, Mohanty said and demanded the authorities to concede to its seven Point charter of demands to protect the wild animals .
He said, “10 elephants were electrocuted to death in last 55 days. While five died due to sagging live electric wire five died due to live wire traps set by poachers.In all such cases attempts were being made by authorities to hide the actual cause,age and sex of elephants in unnatural death cases.”
Mohanty said, “since December 2012 as many as 27 elephants have fallen into open wells in 17 incidents and two adult tuskers lost their lives while several injured.” He said though the Forest department have identified 14 elephant Corridors five years ago they were not notified so far due to lobbying by mining companies.
He demanded the immediate notification of all the 14 identified elephant corridors under the Environment (Protection)Act 1986 as sensitive ecological zones, presence of two independent observers during the post mortem of elephants and to hold senior officers responsible for avoidable elephant deaths in their areas instead of punishing only subordinate staff.
Mohanty demanded to book cases against executive engineers and managing Director of electricity distribution companies for allowing sagging lines to kill elephants.
He also demanded the authorities to issue guidelines for payment of compassionate claims for crop and house damage by elephants at the earliest.