Wildlife expert and Wildlife Society of Orissa secretary Biswajit Mohanty has written a letter to CM Naveen Patnaik expressing deep concern over the high death toll of elephants in the State, underscoring a need for a review on monthly basis of the safety measures taken for the elephants.
In view of a recent killing of an adult female elephant near Kuanriapal in the Sadar Forest range of Dhenkanal Forest Division, which was knocked down by a train, Mohanty told that figures of elephant causality in Odisha for various reasons like poaching, train kill, electrocution and other unnatural causes are alarming as the State reports the highest number of elephant deaths in the country.
Mohanty told, “We have been regularly flagging the threats to elephants and suggesting remedial measures to the PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden, Odisha but elephants continue to be ruthlessly slaughtered.”
He lamented that the issue has been brought to the notice of the Forest and Environment Minister several times but in vain.
He requested the Forest and Environment Minister to carry out a review every month about measures taken by the department for the safety of elephants. “Unless the honourable Minister intervenes and regularly monitors and fixes accountability, we are afraid the elephants of Odisha will continue to perish in unacceptably large numbers bringing ignominy to our State at national and international levels,” he said.
