Bandhavgarh elephant deaths: Foresters suspended; report doesn’t mention pesticide

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has suspended two senior officials of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve after a high-level team that probed the death of 10 elephants inside the park submitted its report.

The report does not point to any pesticide or the role of “another side”, the CM told news agency PTI on Sunday (November 3).

Action has been taken against reserve director Gaurav Choudhary and the assistant conservator of forest (ACF) Fateh Singh Ninama for alleged lapses. The reserve has drawn national attention following the deaths of the elephants in about 72 hours.

Laxity in performing duties

“The high-level team has submitted its report. Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve director has been suspended for switching off his phone, not returning to work after leave and other reasons. ACF Fateh Singh Ninama has also been suspended,” Yadav told PTI in Bhopal.

Both have been suspended for showing laxity in performing their duties, he added.

The two were suspended based on the report of a panel comprising MP junior forest minister Pradeep Ahirwar, additional chief secretary Ashok Baranwal and head of Forest Force Aseem Shrivastava.

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No pesticide in initial report

Calling the jumbo deaths “very painful”, the CM said the government took the matter seriously and sent the forest minister and senior officials to the reserve for a probe.

Yadav said the initial report doesn’t point to any pesticide (in the food consumed by the elephants) or the involvement of “another side”. “The post-mortem report of the elephants will come in two or three days,” he added.

Officials had earlier talked about toxicity along with huge quantities of kodo millets in the stomachs of the 10 elephants that died in the reserve.

Toxic substance in food?

On October 29, four wild elephants were found dead in Sankhani and Bakeli under the Khalil range of the reserve in Umaria district, while four died on October 30 and two on October 31.

The elephants may have died after consuming some toxic substance, as per officials. Several other teams are also probing the incidents.

The CM had called an emergency meeting on Friday (November 1) night and sent a team comprising MP forest junior minister Pradeep Ahirwar, additional chief secretary Ashok Baranwal and head of Forest Force Aseem Shrivastava to the reserve to probe the elephant deaths and submit a report.

The team returned to Bhopal on Sunday evening.

Also read: Human-elephant conflicts: Over 2,500 people died in five years, says govt data

Need for elephant task force

Yadav has also underlined the need for an elephant task force, radio tracking, and a long-term plan with the help of wildlife experts to avoid a repeat of jumbo deaths and attacks on humans.

“The elephants coming from other states, including Chhattisgarh, are not turning back due to the good environs and management of our parks. They have become an integral part of MP forest activities. Keeping this in mind, we have to look for a lasting plan for them,” Yadav told PTI.

“We have decided to form an elephant task force to safely accommodate them. We will come up with a long-term plan comprising the best practices of other states, including Karnataka, Kerala and Assam that have huge jumbo populations. We are going to send our officers to these states,” he said.

Govt to seek advice of experts

Yadav said several ways are being explored to ensure incidents like the multiple jumbo deaths and attacks on humans are not repeated.

“We are going to seek the advice of wildlife experts for this,” the CM said.

“To avoid man-animal conflicts, solar fencing will be installed around agriculture farms. This is so that the elephants do not destroy crops. The state government has decided to employ radio (collar) tracking of lone elephants that do not move in herds. This will ensure there is no repeat (of Saturday's incident in which two persons were killed by an aggressive tusker),” he added.

Bull elephant captured

On Saturday, two persons were killed and one injured in an elephant attack in the area.

On Sunday, forest officials captured an elephant, believed to be in musth, saying it was responsible for the deaths.

Earlier, it was suspected that three elephants had caused the human deaths and injuries.

Also read: Elephant issues: Andhra Dy CM Pawan Kalyan meets Karnataka Forest Minister

Elephant not of affected herd

“After tracking footprints, we captured the elephant that has entered adulthood and is around 20 years old. The bull is not among the three remaining elephants of a herd that lost 10 pachyderms this week,” the reserve’s deputy director Prakash Verma told PTI.

He said residents of villages near the reserve had claimed that the three remaining jumbos from the herd were behind the attacks.

“We tracked, monitored and studied the footprints before spotting the tusker and capturing it,” he said.

Jumbo had attacked some camps

This bull elephant had earlier demonstrated aggression by attacking some camps but had not charged at humans, he said.

“The behaviour of bull elephants changes when they enter adulthood and during musth (marked by heightened aggression due to increased testosterone levels),” said the official.

The jumbo was captured on the orders of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) VKN Ambade after it was found to be a threat to humans, Verma said.

(With agency inputs)