The Hindu : Probe ordered into elephant's death

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 30, 2003

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National

Probe ordered into elephant's death

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI MARCH 29 . The Ministry of Environment and Forests has ordered an enquiry into the death of an elephant last month after it was captured in the Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh.

A three-member committee of experts will probe the circumstances that caused the death and also study how appropriate are the techniques adopted for the capture and training of the animal.

The committee will ascertain whether there had been a lapse on the part of any authority or persons and if irregularities had been committed. It will also suggest steps to avoid such incidents. The decision to institute the enquiry was taken by the Environment Minister, T.R. Baalu.

Headed by the former Additional Director-General of Forests (Wildlife), the committee will have the veterinary officer of the National Zoological Park in Delhi, N. Panneer Selvam, and Director-incharge of the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, S. Singsit, as members. It will submit its report within a month.

The wild tusker died on February 24. It was captured by Parbati Barua, a mahout, in the forests of Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh on February 2.

The mahout has come under a lot of criticism from environmentalists, including the former Union Minister, Maneka Gandhi, for using obsolete and torturous methods to capture and tame the elephant.

The project was terminated following the death of the pachyderm. Ms. Barua, who had been given the task of capturing and taming wild elephants that had killed about a dozen people in Chhattisgarh, has written to the Environment Ministry seeking its intervention in the matter to `stop injustice and harassment' being meted out to her in the form of false complaints and notices of prosecution.

She says the elephant died because of an injury caused by a dart that was unprofessionally used to tranquillise it. The injury became incurable and ultimately led to its death.

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