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Shifting of elephants case adjourned to January

CUTTACK: Shifting of a herd of elephants that had sneaked into neighbouring Andhra Pradesh from Lakhari reserve forests in Orissa’s Gajapati district has now its echo felt in courtrooms. The Orissa High Court has taken note of the issue and has issued notices to Andhra Pradesh Government among others to file counters in response to a PIL.

The division bench of Chief Justice A.K.Ganguly and Justice Biswanath Mohapatra after taking cognizance of the case on Friday and expressing concern over the manner, in which the pachyderms were shifted, has adjourned the case to be heard next in January 2008.

General secretary of Orissa Mazdoor Union and labour leader Dandapani Mohanty had moved the HC alleging that the animals were shifted in a very “cruel” and “brutal” manner.

“After giving heavy doses of tranquilizers, the animals were chained and shifted in trucks resulting death of an adult female and a calf”, the petition had said.

Seeking a direction to the government to stop such brutality on innocent animals, the petitioner had urged the court to ensure that the elephants are properly taken care of in the reserve forests with adequate provisions for their food.

At least 11 elephants had strayed into the neighbouring state earlier this year from the reserve forest.

The pachyderms had reportedly killed several persons and destroyed standing crops in Andhra Pradesh for which the forest officials there had launched ‘Operation Gajendra’ in October this year to relocate the animals back into the Orissa forest.

Following the death of the two elephants, the operation had stopped when Orissa government expressed its displeasure over the procedure adopted by the Andhra Pradesh Government to shift the animals.

The issue was snowballing into a major tussle between the neighbouring states when Orissa Chief Minister urged the Union Forest and Environment Ministry to intervene.

Following Center’s mediation, both the neighbouring states are now engaged in making a joint effort to devise plans to drive back the herd of elephants back into the Orissa forests.

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