Once, the Athagarh forest was rich wildlife hub with elephants, tigers, boars, bears, rabbits, deer, sambars and many other animals and birds living.
But due to no-holds-barred cutting of trees in the jungle and animal poaching by mafias in connivance with the forest officials, Athagarh forests have turned unsafe for the wildlife.
Lack of food and adequate drinking water in the jungle has forced the wild animals to stray into the human habitations, taking the farm crops as their food, triggering man-animal conflicts. The rare animals like tigers sometimes caught in CCTV cameras in Narsinghpur forest range areas have gone extinct.
Similarly, the jungle once provided a congenial atmosphere for the elephants which were seen in large numbers at least a decade ago. But for the present precarious conditions of the jungle, the number of elephants is fast decreasing.
Only in the last five years, the Athagarh forest division has witnessed the death of 50 elephants as per official data but the private sources say over 60 have perished due to poaching for various reasons like collecting tusks, disease, killing by farmers for destructing their crops, falling in ditches and water reservoirs and infighting etc.
This week, the department has seized the carcasses of three elephants from Athagarh forest range areas. As per the data available with Athagarh Forest Division office in 2013-14, at least 11 elephants died. In 2014-15 its number, however, fell at 3. In 2015-16 at least 10 elephants died and in 2016-17 the number rose to 12. In 2017-18 till September end, 14 elephants perished.
Though the Forest department has spent crores of rupees for protecting the wild lives in Athagarh jungle by employing hundreds of forest forces, including DFO, ACF, Range Officers, Foresters, Forest Guards, elephant watchers and trackers, besides para forest staff along with other Government officials and Vana Surakshya Samiti members and has undertaken several projects like solar fencing, digging of water bodies in the jungle etc, but they have proved futile.
As the department fails to seize any valuable tusks from the possession of the poachers and arrest anybody in connection with the poaching of animals, it raises eyebrows on the efficiency of the forest officials here.
On the Wildlife Day on October 5, the animal and nature lovers expressed serious concern over the trend here.