Bhopal: Eight wild elephants in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) under Umaria district in Madhya Pradesh died over the past 48 hours due to suspected poisoning, officials said on Wednesday. Another elephant was critically unwell and undergoing treatment by the vets, a senior forest officer said. “Eight elephants in BTR died (over the past 48 hours). Another elephant is undergoing treatment. The cause of death will be ascertained in the postmortem reports”, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) (wildlife) L Krishnamurthy told this newspaper. Four wild elephants were found dead in Salakhanya Beat of Khitauli and Pataur core ranges respectively just 100-200 meters away from each other in BTR on Tuesday afternoon. Four more wild elephants were found dead in the area early on Wednesday morning, a senior forest officer of BTR said. With this, the death toll of wild elephants in the BTR over the past 48 hours mounted to eight. Preliminary probe suggested that it may be a case of poisoning, the forest officer said. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has sent a team of forest officers to BTR to probe the incident. Besides, the special task force (STF) of the state forest department on Wednesday reached the spot to begin an investigation into the incident separately, sources said. “A team of eight veterinary doctors are conducting a postmortem of the deceased elephants. We have ordered 300 sacks of salt for the burial of the carcass. Two JCB machines will be deployed to dig pits for the purpose”, BTR deputy director P K Verma told reporters on Wednesday. According to him, a 13-member elephant herd was moving in the area when the incident happened. Three other elephants in the herd were released in the forest after treatment. Another elephant in the herd was found to be healthy. The STF has launched an investigation in the five km area of the spot of the incident. The probe team would examine the millet crops in the area to find out if they were treated with an overdose of pesticides and also examine the water sources used by the pachyderms if they were poisoned, sources said. The probe team would also investigate if the millet crops raised by the locals were poisoned to kill the elephants out of vengeance for damaging their crops. There are around 60 wild elephants in the BTR moving in herds. The elephants migrated from Chhattisgarh to BTR in 2018 and became resident elephants, a senior forest officer said.
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