GUWAHATI, April 10 — Though a lot of things have been said to malign Assam’s internationally acclaimed elephant catcher as well as trainer Parbati Barua by some vested interest circles, involving her with the death of a wild elephant in Chattisgarh in February last, the report prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MOEF) Project Elephant provide a different picture. Smt Barua is the Honorary Chief Elephant Warden of Assam.
The above report submitted to the Union Government on March 12 last, said, interalia, that Smt Barua did not catch the elephant. Moreover, the report also stated that there was nothing wrong in Smt Barua’s methods applied to train the elephant. “It appears that in view of the hype generated by Ms Barua’s presence, the State (Chattishgarh) Forest Department was desperate for capturing ‘any elephant’ to show results. Accordingly, Sri Bishen, tranquillisation expert from Kanha Tiger Reserve, was invited to Jashpur and a sub-adult bull elephant was captured on the morning of 6th February by chemical immobilisation and handed over to Ms Barua for training. Thus, it is the forest officials of Chattisgarh, and not Ms Barua, who captured the elephant.
“The desperation of the State Forest Department to capture an elephant at any cost is obvious from the after-reaction of the senior officers. The team learnt that the PCCF (Chattisgarh) congratulated all the DFOs on ‘the success’. “The chemical immobilisation of the elephant appears to have been done in a most unprofessional way. The records kept by DFO Jashpur show that four darts had to be fired on 6th February to immobilise the elephant. However, subsequent inquiries by the present Chief Wildlife Warden with other officers of Jashpur Division has shown that chemical immobilisation was also attempted by Mr Bishen on the night of 5th February and two darts were fired on the elephant. One of the darts had hit the elephant on its trunk. The elephant shook off the dart and escaped into forests.
“But the impact of the dart with a long syringe fired from a short distance of say 10m and powered with a heavy charge, is capable of damaging the tissues of the elephant trunk which may not be visible on the first few days. There is a high probability that this accident might have ultimately led to a serious wound on the trunk which could not be healed and resulted in death of elephant on 24th February by septicaemia. This crucial aspect of the incident needs to be investigated ...,” said the report of the Wildlife Institute of India and Project Elephant authorities.
It also said, “There is, therefore, no prima-facie reason to suspect that the elephant died on account of deliberate cruelty meted out during the training,” basing on video records of the training. The controversy surrounding the death of the 7 feet tall wild elephant Basant Bahadur while under training of Smt Barua started when a private television news channel telecast the shots of Smt Barua punishing the wild elephant to teach it obedience. The shots were snapped by an associate of environment film maker Mike Pandey.
Smt Barua told news persons here today that the telecast shots were partial as those covered only the penalty part and the parts of rewarding and caressing the elephant during the training session had been deliberately left out to defame her and the North eastern method of training the elephant.
Significantly, the publication Project Elephant (Gajatme) published by MoEF in February, 1993, laid stress on the need to keep alive the North eastern tradition of elephant conservation “in the interest of elephant conservation” (pp 22). Sri Mike Pandey was also a member of the steering committee of the Project Elephant at that time.
Smt Barua also denied that she had signed any contract with the Chattisgarh Government to catch and train elephants. “I, along with my teammates, worked on wage basis. The Chattisgarh project had no connection with the Government of India’s Project Elephant as some quarters are trying to make out,” she said.
Meanwhile, the treatment meted out to Smt Barua at the machination of a vested interest circle, in connection with the death of the Chattisgarh elephant, has attracted sharp reaction from the wildlife experts of the NE region and also from the Government of Assam. While, Chief Minister, Forest Minister and Principal Secretary of Forest, Assam have conveyed their displeasure over the treatment Smt Barua received in Chattisgarh to the authorities concerned, Honorary Wildlife Warden of Arunachal Pradesh Sri CCS Maunglang has sent a letter to the Prime Minister of India, who is also the Chairman of Indian Board of Wildlife, resenting the way Smt Barua was treated in connection with the incident. “...Chattisgarh elephant controversy is not only on attack an one individual in question, i.e. Smt Barua, but in fact, an attack on the ‘Northern Eastern Method’ of training elephants ...,” Sri Maunglang said in his letter to the Prime Minister.