Chirang (Assam), 15 July (HS): The conflict between humans and elephants in the Deushri-Shantipur area of the Indo-Bhutan border under Chirang district of BTC has taken a horrific turn. It is suspected that some people have killed wild elephants inhumanly to get rid of the continuous elephant menace in the area.
The bodies of two dead female elephants have been recovered from two different places around the Chirang-Ripu reserve forest area of Runikhata range. These mysterious deaths in a gap of only three days have again brought the problem of human-elephant conflict into discussion.
Two days ago, the body of a female elephant was found in the reserve forest area of Deushri-Dadgiri. After this, when the team of forest department veterinarians completed the post-mortem and buried the body, they got the news that another female elephant was lying on the banks of Najala river near Laukhiguri village.
When the forest department team reached the spot with doctors, they found that the elephant was still alive. Efforts were made to save her, but she also killed during treatment.
Forest department veterinarian Dr. Prabhat Basumatari said that in the preliminary investigation, traces of poisonous substance have been found in the bodies of both the elephants. It is suspected that someone deliberately fed these elephants poisoned food, due to which their stomachs started rotting and eventually they killed.
However, samples have been collected for forensic investigation to find out the real cause of death.
Meanwhile, Runikhata forest officer Jasmanik Musahari said that due to many reasons, forests are degrading rapidly in the Chirang-Ripu reserved forest area, which has created a food crisis. For this reason, herds of wild elephants are now leaving the forest and reaching human settlements in search of food, due to which human-elephant conflict has intensified in the last few years.
It is feared that some insensitive people are deliberately feeding poisoned food to elephants to avoid such conflicts. The Forest Department has decided to register a case with the police, suspecting a deep conspiracy behind these killings.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Sriprakash