Three major reasons are emerging in the case of death of 10 elephants in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. The first information about eating poisonous kodo was received late. Secondly, the treatment of elephants also started late and thirdly, no lesson was learned from such incidents that happened earlier.
People having knowledge of the forest are giving three important reasons for the death of 10 elephants in Bandhavgarh. The first reason is that the information about elephants falling ill after eating mycotoxin-affected Kodo was received by the management about 14 hours late. The second reason is that the treatment of sick elephants could start after about 16 to 17 hours.
The third and most important reason is that the park management neither made such incidents the subject matter of its study, not only in Bandhavgarh but also in other forests and rural areas, nor did it make itself aware of such incidents after gaining experience from those incidents. Kept ready for events.
Affected at night and treated in the evening
After the death of ten elephants in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, all the teams that came to investigate are taking details of the incident every moment. It is important to note that the information received by the investigation teams was that the wild elephants had eaten the Kodo crop in the fields between ten and eleven o’clock at night.
When they started being driven from here, after drinking water, they reached a place near Salkhaniya village where they were seen by the patrol team at 3 o’clock in the afternoon in an ill and unconscious state. By the time the elephants were seen in sick condition, two elephants had already died. Another two to three hours passed between the time the incident was reported and the officials arrived.
there was no doctor
There were no doctors present in Bandhavgarh when information about the incident was received. The doctor here, Nitin Gupta, had gone to Sanjay Dhubri to monitor the projector Gaur. Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has informed in his complaint to NTCA that government veterinarians refused to help in a near emergency situation after elephants consumed poisonous substance in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, which is a very serious criminal negligence and punishable. Are eligible.
At first only one doctor Madhu Jain arrived alone and started the treatment. It took a lot of time for other doctors to reach here and then for the medicines to arrive after making their estimates.
The elephant’s carcass was burnt silently
In the year 2022 November itself, an elephant had fallen ill in a similar manner after eating Kodo in Chhatwa Beat Ghorighat of Panpatha. After the information, the elephant was treated but could not be saved. That elephant was silently burnt by Ranger Shilsindhu Srivastava. In this case, action was taken against the ranger and he was also suspended.
That matter is still under investigation. Similar incidents had also happened in Surajpur and Balrampur of Chhattisgarh but the doctors there had saved the elephants. Even in Kanha National Park, wild elephants have fallen ill due to eating Kodo but they were saved.
allegations are being made
Wildlife lover Narendra Bagadiya says that the death of elephants has happened due to the weakness of the information system of Bandhavgarh management. The treatment given to the elephants after they fell ill was also very mediocre and this happened because the management had not learned any lessons from previous incidents. Vandana Dwivedi says that the park management should always be alert about how to save elephants or other animals if they fall ill after eating something.
