Four Elephants (Two Calves), Allegedly Poisoned, Now Dead in Assam | Video
source: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/four-elephants-die-in-five-days-in-assam-59091
-
-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Updated: October 12, 2010 16:38 IST
Guwahati: The fringes of the Kaziranga National Park have turned into deadly territory.
In the last few days, four elephants - two of them calves - have been found dead in the area, the most recent was discovered in the Panbari Reserve Forest. All are suspected to have died of poisoning.
Panbari is one of the most important animal corridors in the country, but the corridor has been choked with more than a hundred stone quarries.
The impact of that on wildlife is compounded by the tea estates in the area which chemical pesticides and toxic weedicides.
It's not clear whether the poisioning was deliberate. But the conflict between elephants and humans has been rising. This year, elephant herds from near-by Karbianglong have destroyed fully-grown rice paddy in at least ten villages in Kaziranga.
In September, the government announced that the elephant would be given National Heritage Animal status, which would entitle it to the same level of protection as the tiger. A task force set up to draft policy has presented an agenda that tackles the diversifying conflict with humans, as well as the loss of habitat. However, it has not touched upon the issue of pesticides in eco-sensitive zones.
"There is no measure as of now and we have enough laws, it's the implementation which is lacking," says Rathin Barman, Coordinator of the Wildlife Trust of India.
Last month, pictures of seven elephants run over by a speeding train in Siliguri in West Bengal had people all over the country cringing. It also became a sore point between the Railways Ministry and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/four-elephants-die-in-five-days-in-assam-59091...
-
- groups:
- Community, News and Politics, Green, Culture, 24 more
-
- tags:
- India, Wildlife, Animal Protection, animal cruelty, 40 more
-
-
tverdell
- This comment was removed by its owner.
-
tverdell
-
-
fun_size
-
tverdell:
Damn thats impressive! I cant even paint that well...
- 1 year ago
-
fun_size
-
-
Oba_min_ation
-
Good I need some new piano keys.
- 1 year ago
-
Oba_min_ation
-
-
EthicalVegan
-
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/30/india-elephant-death-toll
India to investigate rising elephant death toll
'Elephant-range' states will meet in Delhi next week to discuss the threat to the animals posed by poachers and habitat loss
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 October 2009 16.38 GMT
Indian elephant feeds on bamboo A young Indian elephant feeds on bamboo. Photograph: Wayne Lawler/Ecoscene/Corbis
An alarming rise in elephant deaths in India because of habitat loss and poachers' bolder forays into government-protected zones has led officials to arrange a meeting to address the problem.
This year has seen jumbos poisoned and electrocuted by villagers in Assam and the animals killed for their tusks in Orissa. Herds of wild elephants have killed at least 30 people in Chhattisgarh so far this year.
A N Prasad, director of the Indian government's Project Elephant, said: "Almost all states are grappling with increasing jumbo-human conflicts due to habitat degradation, resulting in disappearance of [wildlife] corridors." The official said that the conflict was now a serious issue and that a meeting of "elephant-range" states would be held in Delhi next week to work out how the animals could be saved from retaliatory killings.
One proposal from the WWF is to use domesticated female elephants, known as kunkis, to drive off foraging wild animals.
India claims to have one of the world's largest wild elephant populations – numbering more than 27,000 – but environmentalists fear the pachyderm is headed the same way as the tiger, which has disappeared from large swaths of the country.
"Elephant numbers are about a third less than the government thinks and dropping like a stone in a lake," said Bittu Sahgal, environmentalist and editor of Sanctuary Asia magazine.
Sahgal said concerns in Delhi are not reflected by local decisions – which often make matters worse. "There's a dam being built now in north-eastern India, which will cut off food supplies for four months for the local elephants. Where will they go? They will go to the villagers' fields and be killed."
Even the traditional respect for elephants in India does not save them from the wrath of locals. Last week, a full-grown female elephant was found dead – suspected to have been poisoned – at a tea estate in on the Indo-Bhutan border.
The other major problem is illegal hunting of the animals. While trophy hunting of elephants has been relegated to history, today poachers are after the ivory in the tusks – a hot commodity across Asia where it is prized as an ornament and used in traditional medicine.
Although the sale of tusks and other elephant parts is a violation of international law, poaching is bigger business than ever, with prices for ivory rising more than 16-fold in recent years. One study released this month predicted the extinction of the African elephant within 15 years unless the problem is tackled.
"I am afraid this [problem of conflicts between humans and Indian elephants] is entirely predictable. India has good policies [to save the elephant] but does not implement them. Until it does, the elephant is condemned," said Sahgal.
- 1 year ago
-
EthicalVegan
