ELEPHANT SLAUGHTER: Animal activists hit streets

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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090228/jsp/guwahati/story_10604255.jsp

 

Animal activists hit streets

OUR CORRESPONDENT

 

Dibrugarh, Feb. 27: Animal lovers and activists today took to the

streets of Sonari in Sivasagar and burnt effigies of forest minister

Rockybul Hussain to protest the brutal killing of a pregnant elephant

near Abhayapur reserve forest on Wednesday night.

 

Villagers living on the edge of Abhayapur reserve forest found the

carcass of the elephant yesterday, with its tail, tip of the trunk and

an ear chopped off.

 

Led by the Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), nearly a

hundred people shouted slogans against the Tarun Gogoi-led government

for failing to protect animals.

 

They accused the government of failing to control, “poaching and

timber smuggling” in the reserve forest which shares a 20-km boundary

with Nagaland.

 

“We have been highlighting these issues for quite some time now

through various memorandums and applications, but the authorities so

far have preferred to keep mum,” said Rabijit Baruah, the president of

the Sonari regional unit of the AJYCP.

 

The forest department, however, was still not sure who killed the elephant.

 

“If it had been a case of poaching, the poachers would have targeted a

tusker in the herd. However, that was not the case. This is why we

think that the elephant was not killed by poachers but by some local

groups. The investigations have just begun and we will be able to come

to a conclusion once the probe is over,” Utpal Bora, the divisional

forest officer of Sivasagar, said over telephone.

 

Bora, who visited the area yesterday, said samples of the animal’s

kidney, liver have been sent for forensic tests at the Guwahati-based

Forensic Science Laboratory and the report is expected within a week’s

time.

 

“First and foremost, we will have to establish the cause of death. If

we find that it was because of poisoning, we have certain people on

our list of suspects. We will begin questioning them,” Bora said.

 

Green groups have also come down heavily on the state government for

its failure to protect the state’s greenery and wildlife.

 

“It is a matter of shame for the state government and the forest

department that poaching and timber smuggling continue despite a

series of agitation by various organisations. The forest department

has hopelessly failed to protect the state’s wildlife,” Soumyadeep

Datta, the director of Nature’s Beckon, said.

 

Datta also demanded an impartial inquiry to probe the elephant killing.

 

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