According to official data, 50 elephants have died in the State during the last 11 months. Of them, 29cases were found to be ‘unnatural deaths’ while reasons of five deaths could not be ascertained.
This was stated by Gajah Bandhu convenor Dr Biswajit Mohanty at the second Gajah Bandhu Meet, organised by the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) in collaboration with the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and Elephant Family (EF) here on Friday.
Expressing deep concern over the elephant deaths, members of the Gajah Bandhu, a network of wildlife volunteers, activists, VSS leaders, honorary wildlife warden, alleged that despite allocation of crores of rupees of budget for protection of elephants, there has been no visible improvement in safety for elephants.
Twenty eight participants from elephant-bearing districts like Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Cuttack and Deogarh attended the meeting.
“Around 14 elephants have been killed by poachers in the last 11 months, but not a single culprit has been arrested till now due to lack of effective intelligence network,” said Mohanty.
The wildlife activists alleged that the Government patted itself during the wildlife week in October claiming to have drastically reduced electrocution deaths, but within 55 days after that, 10 elephants were electrocuted, five by sagging electric lines and five by live wire traps set by poachers.
The body placed a seven-point charter of demands including recognition of all 14 identified elephant corridors by the State
Government under the Environment (Protection) Act-1986 as sensitive ecological zones (SEZs), conduct of post mortem of dead elephants in the presence of at least two independent observers like wildlife
warden and local wildlife volunteer, issuance of guidelines for payment of compassionate claims for crop and house damage by elephants after obtaining of inputs from all stakeholders and appropriate mitigation measures to address threats like open wells and canals.