| Carcass of female jumbo found at Orangajuli tea garden | ||
Guwahati, Oct. 23: The carcass of a full-grown female elephant, suspected to have died of poisoning, was found this morning at Orangajuli tea estate along the Indo-Bhutan border in Udalguri district. This is the sixth elephant to have fallen prey to the rising cases of man-elephant conflict along the border the district shares with Bhutan. Eleven persons have been killed by elephants since last November. The divisional forest officer, Udalguri, Bankim Sharma, said over phone that preliminary investigations suggested that the elephant had died of poisoning. The exact cause of death will be known only after post-mortem. “The viscera will be sent to the state forensic laboratory for ascertaining the exact cause of the death,” Sharma said. Sharma said though the labourers of Orangajuli claimed that the elephant had died of injuries sustained during infighting among members of a herd last night, the carcass bore no injury mark. Another forest official said there was regular conflict among tea garden labourers and elephants as the animals constantly strayed into human settlements in search of food. “The scent of country liquor also attracts elephants towards human settlements,” the official said. Labourers often lace bananas and banana trees with toxic chemicals, mainly fertilisers used in the tea bushes, and place these on the routes constantly used by the elephants, forest officials claimed. Elephants love to gorge on bananas. Sharma said in view of the increasing man-elephant conflict, the forest department had taken several steps to minimise casualty. “We have formed teams, including members of the administration, NGOs, local villagers and the forest department to prevent such conflicts through monitoring.” Last month, the forest department also set up a permanent forest camp at Hatigarh tea estate in Udalguri district, not very far from today’s incident site, to chase away elephants from human settlements. Sharma said the forest department had also been conducting awareness programmes to motivate local people to inform the forest department immediately, instead of attacking the pachyderms. “Depleting forest cover has forced the elephants to stray into human habitats regularly. The only option left is to motivate the people to live and let live,” Sharma said. According to a study, of the 41,000 square km of elephant habitat in the Northeast, less than 6,000 square km falls under the protected area network resulting in an increase in human-elephant conflicts. Assam has a population of about 5,000 wild elephants. Sharma attributed the spurt in human-elephant conflict in the last couple of months to the approaching harvesting season. |
| Carcass of female jumbo found at Orangajuli tea garden | ||
Guwahati, Oct. 23: The carcass of a full-grown female elephant, suspected to have died of poisoning, was found this morning at Orangajuli tea estate along the Indo-Bhutan border in Udalguri district. This is the sixth elephant to have fallen prey to the rising cases of man-elephant conflict along the border the district shares with Bhutan. Eleven persons have been killed by elephants since last November. The divisional forest officer, Udalguri, Bankim Sharma, said over phone that preliminary investigations suggested that the elephant had died of poisoning. The exact cause of death will be known only after post-mortem. “The viscera will be sent to the state forensic laboratory for ascertaining the exact cause of the death,” Sharma said. Sharma said though the labourers of Orangajuli claimed that the elephant had died of injuries sustained during infighting among members of a herd last night, the carcass bore no injury mark. Another forest official said there was regular conflict among tea garden labourers and elephants as the animals constantly strayed into human settlements in search of food. “The scent of country liquor also attracts elephants towards human settlements,” the official said. Labourers often lace bananas and banana trees with toxic chemicals, mainly fertilisers used in the tea bushes, and place these on the routes constantly used by the elephants, forest officials claimed. Elephants love to gorge on bananas. Sharma said in view of the increasing man-elephant conflict, the forest department had taken several steps to minimise casualty. “We have formed teams, including members of the administration, NGOs, local villagers and the forest department to prevent such conflicts through monitoring.” Last month, the forest department also set up a permanent forest camp at Hatigarh tea estate in Udalguri district, not very far from today’s incident site, to chase away elephants from human settlements. Sharma said the forest department had also been conducting awareness programmes to motivate local people to inform the forest department immediately, instead of attacking the pachyderms. “Depleting forest cover has forced the elephants to stray into human habitats regularly. The only option left is to motivate the people to live and let live,” Sharma said. According to a study, of the 41,000 square km of elephant habitat in the Northeast, less than 6,000 square km falls under the protected area network resulting in an increase in human-elephant conflicts. Assam has a population of about 5,000 wild elephants. Sharma attributed the spurt in human-elephant conflict in the last couple of months to the approaching harvesting season. |
