Three jumbo carcasses found

BARIPADA: Even as the forest department has initiated a probe into the alleged poisoning of five elephants in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Mayurbhanj district, recovery of decomposed bodies of three elephants including one tusker age about 10-years on Tuesday has put the forest officials in a fix.On May 6, bones and skulls of four elephants, probably a male, a female and one calf, were dug out close to each other in the core area of the park, while that of another baby elephant was found about one km away. All appeared to have been buried and covered with leaves. Later the body of another jumbo was discovered by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) during his spot visit.Sources said a four-member team of wildlife activists of Mayurbhanj traced the carcass of the elephants - one tusker and two baby elephants within a few distance in Ballikhal near Dhudirichampa (Palpala Compartment No-10) under Nawana South range inside Similipal. The team also informed the Regional Conservator of Forest (RCF) and Fired Director of Similipal about death of the elephants.Meanwhile a team of forest officials have visited the spot to investigate the matter. “We had gone to the spot and found the carcass of a tusker and two baby elephants which, we suspect, have died a week back. We suspect the jumbos have been poisoned to death. The veterinary surgeon of Jashipur has carried out the postmortem of the bodies and samples have been collected for forensic test,” said a forest official.“We have detained four people of Gopinathpur and Parsia village in connection with the poaching of elephants. They are being interrogated,” he added.Regional Conservator of Forest (RCF) Anup Nayak however tried to suppress the fresh recovery of elephant carcasses. He said no carcass has been found other then the five in the second week of May besides of an elephant calf which was died of sunstroke.