Even as the World Elephant Day was celebrated on Monday, the jumbo population of the Athagarh jungle is not safe and their free movements are obstructed.
Once the Athagarh forest was an ideal habitat for hundreds of tuskers where they got dense forest cover with availability of abundant foodstuffs and adequate natural water sources.
After India’s independence, when the forest division was formed, it was considered as one of the safest forests for the very survival of the wildlife. Hundreds of animals and plant species of rare nature were present in the jungle. But with the changes of time and development of people’s negative behaviour here, the jungle has lost its past status.
Many departmental officers engaged here from time to time were in connivance with the jungle mafias and poachers, with rampant tree cutting and free transportation of trees to urban areas and killing of wildlife, including elephants, going unabated.
At present we find that the elephants living in the jungle are largely unsafe. Their free movements are obstructed at different points by the people either for passing the roads or protecting their farmlands from the scourge of the elephants.
In most of their passing zones, great walls have been erected by different industries for which they turn the direction of passing from one jungle to another. As they don’t find adequate foodstuffs and drinking water in the jungle, they are being forced to stray into the human habitation and crop lands for their food.
For the reason, when the owners of the farmlands try to disperse them, the latter being irritated resulted in man-elephant conflict. Even as the forest division is regarded as a protective zone, the forest officials are required to protect it through different methods.
The people here are frequently poaching animals like deer, wild boars etc for flesh and tuskers for tusks and in most of these incidents forest officials don’t succeed in nabbing the culprits where allegedly the forest officials remain a party in the event.
Asked, Athagarh DFO Sasmita Lenka told this paper that since the Government doesn’t provide funds for fuels and modern vehicles to patrol the jungle, this hinders protection of the jungle and wildlife. Manpower crunch is also another cause of concern.
The local intelligentsia has alleged that the forest officers here frequently remain absent in duty giving ample opportunity to the jungle mafias and poachers to loot the jungle and kill wildlife including elephants. Since as per allegation, the DFO herself leaves the headquarters every night for Bhubaneswar, taking the opportunity, mafias and poachers have become active here.