18 elephants feared poisoned in national park

GUWAHATI, AUG. 19. At least 18 wild elephants of the Nameri National Park are suspected to have been poisoned to death by irate villagers harassed by the herd for long.

The Nameri Range Officer, Mr. Pankaj Sharma, said so far nine carcasses had been recovered from his range.

``Initially, we thought it was the foot and mouth disease but now we suspect poisoning as more carcasses were found in the areas where the elephant depredation was high,'' he said.

Senior veterinary doctors from the Assam Veterinary College, Mr. Apurbo Chakravarty and Mr. Kushal Sharma, would reach Nameri today to collect blood samples of the pachyderms of the forest department.

``We do not think it is the foot and mouth disease as in that case it would have affected all the herbivorous animals in the park. We had found the carcasses of elephants only,'' Mr. Sharma said.

Nameri, situated at the foothills of the Himalayas in the northern bank of the Brahmaputra has a floating population of 225 elephants as per the 1997 census.

But these elephants roam in a massive area extending to Arunachal Pradesh.

- UNI

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