A Forester and three Forest Guards were suspended for intentionally hiding the death of an elephant in a jungle of Nayagarh district last month. This was informed by the forest official sources on Thursday a day after one Alok Senapati and Zilla Parishad member KC Dalabehera of the district lodged a complaint with the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) of Odisha.
As per the direction of PCCF SS Srivastava, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Nayagarh had started an inquiry into the matter and then suspended three forest guards and a Forester for misleading higher officials about the death of the jumbo. The three suspended Forest Guards are Sanatan Swain, Akshay Mallik and Prakash Chandra Pal.
According to reports, on June 17, carcass of a male elephant was found in Chadheiyapalli reserve forest under Daspalla range in Nayagarh district. It was alleged that elephant poachers had killed the jumbo and had taken out the ivory.
On being informed, Kanapaku villagers along with complainant Senapati from Daspalla and ZP member Dalabehera, forest guards and others visited the site and found the highly decomposed body of the tusker. One of them had videographed and taken still pictures of the dead animal.
Even enumerators during the recent State-wide elephant census came to know about the death of an elephant from villagers on June 25. later, two ACFOs were sent to the spot for investigation. But the local forest staff told the probe team that the carcass was that of a buffalo.