The administration had no clue to this racket until an NGO tipped them off about a consignment of nine elephants, including a mother and a calf, heading out of Kokrajhar two days ago. Just a week ago, the central government had accorded heritage status to elephants.
According to sources, this was just the one consignment detected. Many more have slipped past border check-gates to Bengal and Bihar and even crossed the international border into Myanmar.
With the Sonepur fair in Bihar (famed for elephant trade) approaching, wildlife crime experts fear the worst for the gentle jumbos of Assam.
The nine elephants are said to have been brought from Upper Assam to Kokrajhar in Lower Assam. Police intercepted the trucks at Sreerampur on the Assam-Bengal border. A Kokrajhar-based NGO, Green Heart Nature Club, filed a complaint with police, leading to the arrest of four persons, among them West Bengal-based businessman Rabindra Singh and Dayaram Doloi of Assam's Golaghat district. Read the full report here.
Source: Naresh Mitra, TNN, Guwahati.
