Cuttack: Was every effort made by the forest officials to save the elephant? While raising this question and a few others, Member State Animal Welfare Board, Biswajit Pradhan, has demanded a high-level inquiry into the tragic death of a tusker stuck in the Mundali barrage near Cuttack city.
A carcass of an elephant, believed to have been missing since Friday night, was found at Satabatia in Jagatpur by Forest personnel on Sunday evening. The elephant earlier got stuck at a sluice gate (Gate 24) of Mahanadi barrage at Jobra and when the gate was opened by Irrigation department personnel, the carcass was swept away to Satabatia in Jagatpur.
Also Read: Missing Jumbo Fished Out Of Mahanadi At Cuttack’s Jagatpur
In his letter, Pradhan said that the elephant was part of a herd of about 17 jumbos crossing the Mahanadi from the Sukasen Forest of the Athagarh Forest division to the Chandaka Forest early on Friday morning (September 24). While others could cross the river, the tusker was caught in the strong current. Having been trapped in the water for more than 10 hours, he inched towards the riverbank with great effort only to return to mid-river after finding a large crowd at the bank.
Pradhan claimed that the when elephant again came to the edge but the forest officials did not make every effort to get it out of the water nor control the crowds on the edge of the river. The elephant was struggling to survive due to the deep water.
In a letter sent to Additional Director General of Forests Wildlife Preservation -cum- Member-Secretary, National Board for Wild Life, Government of India, he asked these four questions:
1. Why was every effort not made by the forest officials to save the elephant?
2. Why did the administration not control the crowd on the Riverbank?
3. Why the advice of experts was not taken to save the elephant? And
4. Why there was a lack of coordination between the forest department and the administration.
