Wild Elephant Killed By Poachers Trap In Odisha, Days After Two Jumbos Died Of Electrocution
An elephant was found dead in the Satkosia Forest Reserve at Jagannathpur in the Angul district of Odisha on Saturday, after falling into a trap set by poachers.
According to reports, the tusker had accidentally stepped into a live-wire trap set by poachers for wild boars.
The body of the tusker was found by some villagers on Saturday and informed the forest officials.?
Second case this week
The tusker's death comes just days after two elephants were electrocuted in the OUAT campus in Keonjhar under the Keonjhar Sadar range.
The two elephants, who were also nursing newborn cubs were part of a herd that entered the campus on Wednesday.
The two elephants died after coming into contact with low-lying electric wires. Their trunks were stuck with the electric wire when the carcasses were recovered.
Worrying rise in elephant deaths
This comes at a time when Odisha is seeing an alarming increase in elephant deaths.
In the past two months alone 15 cases of unnatural deaths of elephants in forests have been reported in the state.
Electrocution remains one of the biggest causes of unnatural elephant deaths in the state.
Case of elephant electrocution was reported in Odisha in March and July this year.?Two wild elephants were killed by poachers in June and July.
Task force to reduce?elephant poaching?
Odisha recorded the deaths of 245 elephants in 2019-22, out of which 82 were in 2019-20 and 77 were in 2020-21.
The Orissa high court had on Thursday approved constitution of a joint task force comprising members of forest department, police and a wildlife activist to recommend suitable criminal provisions to be applied on elephant poachers.
On August 9 the court had asked the director-general of police to submit an affidavit on how to tackle elephant poaching.
The court expressed concern over the poor enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) in the state after the Forest Department informed that at least 14 cases of elephant poaching occurred during the last five years.
Where are the male elephants?
According to the 2017 census, there were 1,976 elephants in Odisha.?However, environmentalists had pointed out that the number of adult males were significantly less.
According to Wildlife Society of Odisha, in 2017, there were just 344 adult males, and in the five years since, at least 104 of them above the age of 15 have died of unnatural cause.
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