The Odisha Forest Department has seized ivory weighing 19.6 kg in the Keonjhar district and intensified its investigation into the network of wildlife poachers and traders in the State.
On being tipped off about a group trying to sell off elephant tusks, Keonjhar Wildlife Division, Anandapur formed a team to blow the lid off the traders’ network.
“Our dedicated team assumed the role of buyer of the ivory stock. They kept on negotiating with the group for more than two months. After we were able to convince them, they got ready for a transaction,” said Ajit Satpathy, Divisional Forest Officer of Keonjhar Wildlife Division, Anandapur.
Three persons were arrested and a new car was seized at Bahiapita village under Harichandanpur police station where the transaction was to take place. Fourteen pieces of tusks were recovered from them.
“Preliminary interrogation revealed that they were neither poachers nor traders. They were intermediaries who were trying to earn a quick buck,” Mr. Satpathy said.
He said the division had benefited from the improvement in the level of trust between officials and forest dwellers, and information on the movement of poachers and timber smugglers was being received seamlessly.
According the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), an environmental pressure group, elephant mortality rate is rising alarmingly as the average percentage deaths per year had shot up to 78% since 2010, compared with the 33% from 1990 to 2000, and 46% from 2000 to 2010. While 463 elephant deaths were recorded during the period 2000 to 2010, the number grew sharply to 784 elephant deaths in the period 2010 to 2020, it said.
“Of the 784 deaths in the last ten years, 281 (36%) elephants died an unnatural death, and in 160 (20%) cases the cause of death could not be ascertained primarily due to finding of bodies in highly decomposed state. One could conclude that nearly 50% of the elephant mortality in Odisha is unnaturally caused,” said Biswajit Mohanty, WSO’s secretary.
