Lending credence to Mohanty's assertion, Wildlife Warden (honorary) Sanjukta Basa maintained that there has been definite evidence to wipe out evidence. “Two carcasses of elephants were found burnt and two others were found buried with dismantled bones," Basa told The Pioneer.
“This only indicates that there are organised poaching gangs active in the area that obviously cannot thrive without the collusion of the field staffs of the forest department," she said.
Interestingly, the area from where the incident has been reported is in and around Jenabil, one of the four villages falling in the core area of the reserve that has recently been relocated.
“The Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) too has written to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh demanding a CBI investigation into incident. “This is necessary to unearth the role of field officers as to whether they connived with the poachers or not, as there have been deliberate efforts to destroy evidence by burning or burying the bones," it stated in its letter. Mohanty is also the secretary of WSO.
“The elephant census was being carried out in April when the news first came about the poaching of elephants. The concerned Range Officer refused to grant permission to me and my team to enter the park to verify the reports," Basa claimed. She wanted to visit the core area on April 30, armed with an official order of a senior forest official.
She alleged that the local forest staff had reported the death of just one elephant in April concealing the deaths of others. “Two poaching cases were discovered by the department after information about their locations was provided by our team," she said. A senior forest official had personally visited the park and found the two carcasses, she added. Read the full report here.
Source: Moushumi Basu, The Pioneer, New Delhi
