Search the Internet          Tips

Authorities suspect poachers
have links with NE gangs

A striking similarity has been found in the modus operandi used by elephant poachers in north-eastern states and the Corbett National Park, in the newly carved out hill state of Uttaranchal, where five elephants have been killed over 45 days, from December 2000 to this month.

While the authorities have failed to get definite clues on the identity of the poachers, they now say with certainty that the Corbett poachers have links with gangs in the north-east.

While the Central Bureau of Investigation team that reached Corbett is still getting into gear, a joint team of police and forest officials is on its way to Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

"Since the killings at Corbett were done mainly with poisoned arrows, a common modus operandi of poachers in the north-east, it will be worthwhile to try and get clues that may prove useful in investigations here," Uttaranchal Direcor General of Police A K Sharan told rediff.com over the telephone from the state headquarters in Dehradun.

He said, "As some elephant poacher gangs knew wildlife authorities in that region, we could look for some links between them and those active at Corbett."

He, however, ruled out the involvement of brigand Veerappan in the Corbett killings.

"After a detailed telephonic discussion with the Tamil Nadu police chief, I am convinced that the Corbett poachers could not be linked with the brigand," Sharan pointed out.

Uttaranchal chief secretary Ajay Vikram Singh, who had undertaken an extensive tour of the park before thrashing out a strategy in consultation with wildlife experts, to nail the culprits, stated, "These poachers were suspected to be moving in groups of two and three. Since they are believed to be moving only on foot, there is no way that they can be easily identified and tracked down."

Singh, who was in Lucknow on an official visit, said , "After all, the business of killing elephants does not begin and end with poachers. They must be having links with the underworld dealing in ivory, since they are essentially targeting tuskers.''

The chief secretary said, "Unlike poachers in the forests of south India, where much of the killing of elephants was done with firearms, the poachers at Corbett were using poisoned arrows or they mixed huge iron nails and pesticides in jaggery cakes spread out in the forest to entice the animals."

He said , "Once the animal eats the jaggery, the pesticides and iron nails give him a slow and painful death, while the poachers follow the trail of the elephant, which gets separated from the herd."

When the animal collapses, the poachers get down to hacking away the tusks. "In one case, the elephant's head was found slit and the tusks removed from their very roots, near the skull," he added.

Set up in 1936 as India's first wildlife reserve, Corbett park had 619 elephants as per the 1999 census. It enjoys the distinction of the best male-female ratio of elephants, compared to the 10 other elephant reserves in other parts of the country. As against 295 females, there were 143 males, while the remaining were calves. Significantly, over 75 per cent males were tuskers.

EARLIER REPORTS
CBI takes over Corbett Park probe
No arrests in poaching case: Uttaranchal DIG

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report