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`Orissa Government a mute spectator to elephant deaths'

In the last 12 months as many as 14 elephants were killed in Orissa's forests

Bhubaneswar: The Orissa Government has turned a `mute spectator' to the unabated poaching of tuskers in the State for illegal ivory trade, Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) secretary Biswajit Mohanty said on Friday.

He claimed that in the last 12 months as many as 14 elephants were killed in Orissa's forests.

In April alone two elephants were shot dead, one at Chandaka and the other at Satkoshia Wildlife Sanctuaries, both considered as the ideal habitat for elephants in Orissa.

The growing menace of unchecked operation of elephant poachers and ivory traders was evident from the recent seizures of 64 kgs of ivory at Jashipur in Mayurbhanj district in December followed by another seizure of 10 kgs of ivory in Jharsuguda in January 2006.

Both the seizures, the WSO secretary said were conducted by police officials giving a clear signal that the wildlife authorities have no information on the rampant tusk trade business going on across the State, he alleged.

The wildlife trade had come to light in Orissa as far as back in April 1996, when 21 leopard skins were seized near Khurda but no concrete action has been taken so far to check the crime, he said. Over the last 25 years, the elephant population in Orissa had shown an alarmingly declining trend with the number of the elephants coming down to 271 in 2005 as against 363 reported in 2002 census.

Poachers selectively target the tuskers, which has distorted the sex ratio which is bound to cause breeding imbalance in future unless checked now.

The poachers, he alleged have managed to kill 214 adult elephants over the last 16 years either by shooting or electrocuting them. Most of the ivory has been smuggled to foreign countries like Japan, China and Hong Kong.

Expert elephant hunters from the North East, who use poison tipped arrows, had reportedly visited Orissa to shoot elephants. "There is no intelligence network to collect information about movement of the poachers, the trade routes and threats to the existing population," Mr Mohanty said.-- UNI

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