The rate at which the elephants are poached and unusual deaths of elephants are occurring in the State, the time is not far off when Odisha will be a no-elephant State.
The elephant is an herbivore, which roams for food everyday with family, irrespective of places. A few days back, two elephants and one baby elephant died in Borapada forest of Dhenkanal town in electrocution. The poaching and other related incidents are a common affair in the State. Borapada forests of Dhenkanal is a hill tropical bamboo forests, where sal is the prominent species. This forest comes within the ambit of Dhenkanal headquarters town where the officials should be more vigilant. The offices of the district Collector, the Divisional Forest Officer, the Superintendent Police, the Executive Engineer of CESU and other concerned offices are there , but unfortunately, wildlife is not safe there.
Since 2011, 84 elephants have been killed in different occasions for which the State and district administrations are squarely responsible.
If the whole thing is sincerely scrutinized it will be such that, the electrical installations and infrastructural works of the CESU are quite defective and are in precarious conditions, especially in forest areas, which are always accident prone. Not only in Dhenkanal district, every where such type of defective constructions and haphazard way of management of electrical installations are found, which invite electrocutions not only of elephants, but also of other animals and men.
The monsoon break-up is the perfect time, when animal of forests are more prone to electrocutions and negligent work of the electrical department is the main cause of such accidents. The elephants do like very much the bamboo shoots, climbers of different species of forests sal shoots and other herbages which grow profusely during rainy season and this is the season when the electricity infrastructure is prone damage due to rains and wind. Timely repairs and rectification of defects are the proper steps to save the wild animals from accidents of such kinds.
As per the provisions of Wild life Protection Act 1972, Indian elephant is a schedule I and part -1 animal. Violation of provisions of the law is liable to imprisonment and fine. The DFO is the prosecution authority, who can prosecute the offenders under the provisions of the Act. But due to slackness of forest and police personnel, the wildlife crimes are on the rise and the offenders are going scot free.
The Mahanadi basin was once famous for elephant populations. The rulers of previous Gadjats were capturing elephants from the wild and used to tame them for their uses. The elephant tusks are very precious, which are used for manufacture of ornaments and furniture for the well-to-do. These tusks yield ivory. For ivory this animal is largely hunted, especially the male elephants. The public cooperation is needed to prevent the illicit poaching of elephants and other animals. Otherwise our forests will be animal free land.
Now the present political rulers of Chhatisgarh State have completely leased out the Mahandi river waters to different industrial units and arresting the stream flows at different points by raising dams and barrages. Now the Chhatisgarh leaders are claiming that the Mahanadi is absolute property of their own, which is quite absurd and illogical. Water and air cannot be monopolized by any country, State or politicians. The whole river system is nature’s creation and whole earth is also nature’s creation. The man has divided it into several segments politically for his own convenience. Not only man, but also every plant and animal has share on it. Chhatisgarh State is a political division of India. No doubt the Mahanadi river has originated from the Eastern Ghat hill range coming under Chhatisgarh State, but that does not mean the State has absolute claim over the whole water sources of Mahandi.
The State Government of Madhya Pradesh is also creating a number of dams and barrages to arrest its water for its commercial uses. The Government of India becomes a mute spectator of such hypocrite behavior of States, which erode the democratic value of the country.
The Mahanadi and the Brahamin basins are very much responsible for rich biodiversity of Odisha. If such rivers are hijacked by the ruling politicians of the origin States, what would be the fate of other riparian States and the people thereIJ
The Indian elephant rarely exceeds 10 feet or 3.20 meter at the shoulder. The average height of an Indian adult elephant is 9feet (2.75m). The Indian elephant is smaller than the African elephants.
The elephants found in Sri lanka are regarded as races equal to elephants found in India.