Bandhavgarh Elephant Deaths: Union Govt Orders Independent Investigation into Deaths of 10 Elephants in Madhya Pradesh

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has constituted a team to investigate the death of ten elephants in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh. The team is conducting an independent enquiry into the matter.

Further, the State Government of Madhya Pradesh has also constituted a five-member State level committee, to enquire into the matter and submit a report to the Government. The five-member committee is headed by APCCF (Wildlife). The committee has members from civil society, scientists and veterinarians. The matter is also being enquired into by the Head of State Tiger Strike Force (STSF). The STSF has combed the forests and the adjoining villages and is conducting an in-depth enquiry about the incident.

Also Read | Bandhavgarh Elephant Deaths: 10 Elephants Die in Past 3 Days in MP; Samples Sent to ICAR-IVRI, Uttar Pradesh for Investigation.

The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden, Madhya Pradesh, is camping in Bandhavgarh and supervising the enquiry and actions being taken in the matter. On the other hand, Additional Director General of Forests (Project Tiger & Elephant) & Member Secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority, along with AIG NTCA, Nagpur, have visited the sites and held discussions with the State officials on the various related issues and probable cause of the deaths of elephants.

As per the preliminary information shared by the concerned officers from the State of Madhya Pradesh, the death of the elephants may be because of poisoning. The final cause of death shall only be ascertained after thorough enquiry, detailed Postmortem reports, results of histopathological and toxicological reports and other corroborative evidence. Further, preventive measures are being taken to avoid the possibility of such incidents by the State officials, and monitoring of other elephant herds in and around Bandhavgarh reserve has been enhanced as informed by the officials.

The patrolling staff of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve detected the death of four elephants in the Salkhania beats of Pataur and Khiatuli range of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh on 29.10.24. On further combing of the adjoining areas, six more elephants were found sick or unconscious in the vicinity. The field staff and local veterinary officers started medication for sick elephants, which was supported by a team of veterinarians from the School of Wildlife Forensic and Health (SWFH). The services of Dr A. B. Srivastava, Retired Head of SWFH, were also taken. The opinion of the veterinarians and faculty at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, was also taken.

However, four sick elephants succumbed to death on 30.10.24. Further, even after continuous medication and treatment, the remaining two sick and unconscious elephants lost their lives on 31.10.24. Out of those dead ten elephants, one was male and nine were female. Further, amongst the ten dead elephants, six were juvenile/subadults and four were adults. The information revealed that the herd of thirteen elephants had raided the Kodo millet crop in the vicinity of the forest.

A team of 14 veterinarians/wildlife veterinarians performed the postmortem on the ten elephants. On 01.11.24, the viscera were sent to IVRI Izzatnagar, Bareilly, and FSL, Sagar, for toxicological and histopathological investigations. However, the blood and other samples were sent to SWFH on 30.10.24, while treatment of the sick elephants prima facie indicated the presence of toxins in the samples sent.