Enquiries revealed that soon after information came about the elephant deaths, forest officials ran to the spot and cut the tusks of one. This was done ostensibly to create an impression that the elephants were females and that they might have died either naturally or after taking poison normally used in agricultural fields.
A veterinary surgeon taken to the spot for post-mortem, however, blew the lid. He did one autopsy, but was furious seeing the other with the tusks taken away. He questioned the action of the forest officials and returned without conducting the post-mortem, sources said.
The 5,000 sq km Simlipal forest has been passing through severe hardship for the past few years. Two years back Maoists raided the forest and destroyed most of the infrastructure, forcing authorities to close down the area for tourists. Last year, the two-member expert team sent by the Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) confirmed killing of nearly a dozen elephants, though unconfirmed reports put the number at 18. Read the full report here.
Source: Times News Network, Bhubaneswar.
