State forest officials differ on issue of killing rogue elephant

July 28, 2010 10:59 pm | Updated 11:00 pm IST - Kolkata:

Whether or not to kill a rogue elephant that has trampled to death three persons in West Bengal's Bardhaman district over the past 13 days has exposed the difference in opinion between two top officials of the State's forest department here on Wednesday.

While the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Sitangshu Bikash Mondal had issued an order on Tuesday to ‘hunt on sight' the rogue elephant, the State's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Atanu Raha said on Wednesday that the animal will be tranquillised and observed for the time being, hunting being the last resort.

A resident male pachyderm from the Bankura range had strayed into the Durgapur range of the Bardhaman district about 15 days ago and raided several villages in the area — trampling people and destroying crops in the process.

It killed 70-year-old Bharat Murmu at Jamboni village on July 16 and two other persons at Radhamohanpur village on July 23.

Faced with a barrage of complaints from the local villagers, forest department officials were forced to declare it rogue.

“Under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, the Chief Wildlife Warden can issue an order to hunt a rogue animal as in the present case and the order stands as of now,” Mr. Mondal told The Hindu .

Mr. Raha, however, said that issuing of hunting order does not mean killing immediately and added that the elephant will be kept under observation and tranquillised, if possible, before taking a shot at killing it.

“Killing it is the last resort. It has to be tranquillised and checked to ascertain whether its abnormal behaviour is due to any injury or not,” he pointed out.

Calling it a classic case of man-animal conflict, the divisional forest officer of Burdwan, G.C. Kajuri, admitted that tracking the rogue elephant for tranquilisation is proving difficult due to the terrain of the region.

“We are trying to drive it back to the Bankura range where it belongs to. It was last sighted at Akarkon village in the Durgapur range last night. No news of any fresh rampage by the elephant has come so far,” Mr. Kajuri said.

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