The Kerala Government will seek the assistance of the Central agency, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), in the investigation of the sensational case of poaching of nearly 30 elephants for ivory in the central Kerala jungles even as the mystery over the death of the prime accused in the case in Maharashtra deepened.
Informing the State Assembly on Wednesday about the Government’s decision to approach the WCCB for assistance in the probe, Forest Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that this was being done as the Forest Department had received indications that people outside the State could have been involved in the poaching incidents.
Replying to a submission from the Opposition on the issue of the rampant elephant-poaching in Kerala Forests, Thiruvanchoor said that 20 persons had so far been arrested in the case. A four-member team of officials from Kerala had already reached Dodamarg in Maharashtra where prime accused Aikaramattam Vasu was found dead in a farm last weekend, he said.
Making the submission in the House, CPI legislator VS Sunilkumar said the death of Vasu, who was accused of shooting down more than two dozen tuskers in just over a year, could be a case of murder. Sunilkumar pointed out that certain influential people involved in the case, who wanted to conceal their role, could have been behind the death.
The body of Vasu, a native of Kuttampuzha, Kothamangalam, was found hanging from a tree in the Dodamarg farm on July 18 and a suicide note was also found from the spot. Accusing the Forest Department of conniving with elephant-poachers, Sunilkumar said that a minimum of 27 wild elephants had been killed by poachers in the central Kerala jungles in the past one year.
Meanwhile, the mystery over the death of Vasu has deepened with information coming out that he was found dead in the Maharashtra farm just when the Kerala officials were expecting him to surrender. Sources in the Forest Department said that how Vasu had reached the farm itself was mysterious.
It is said that the elephant-poacher had worked in the pineapple farm leased by one Manoj Elias of Airapuram, Muvattupuzha for a month. Manoj, who did not know about Vasu’s antecedents earlier, has said that he had promised to return to Kerala. Vasu’s plan was said to be to surrender before the investigators after meeting his differently-abled son.
Also, Vasu had talked twice with the officials investigating the case with the help of Manoj, reportedly to decide on how and when he should surrender. Vasu’s plan was to return to Kerala on July 19 for which Manoj had given him money. That he was found dead on July 18 amidst all this has given rise to serious doubts.
The death of Vasu is bound to adversely affect the Forest Department’s probe into the poaching incidents and the ivory racket within India and, possibly, outside. Vasu was found dead when the department was expecting to get crucial information from him on the people - including those whose names had not yet surfaced - who had been part of the racket.
At the same time, Vasu’s relatives and residents of his native village are not prepared to accept the poaching case registered against him. His relatives claim that he was working hard to look after his poor family when the Forest Department suddenly decided to name him as an accused in the poaching case.
Though Vasu was said to have killed dozens of elephants and the ivory extracted from them could cost millions, the only thing the family possesses is an unfinished small house funded by the panchayat in a five-cent piece of land. He had no connection with poaching and the Forest Department had deliberately trapped him in the case, says his wife Sheeba.