Tezpur, March 10: The chief wildlife warden of Assam has issued an order to shoot two wild tuskers by an elephant hunter. Official sources said wild tuskers have killed at least 12 people in Biswanath, Bihali, Johamari, Tinkhoria and Teliagaon under two wildlife forest divisions of Sonitpur district. The tuskers still at large have trampled to death 10 people in Sonitpur east wildlife forest division while two other persons have been killed in the Sonitpur west forest division since November.
Sources said expert elephant hunter Dinesh Choudhury has been assigned the task of eliminating the two wild tuskers. The elephants, migrating from the reserve forests along the Arunachal Pradesh border to Sonitpur district, have, so far, killed 200 people and damaged properties worth several crores of rupees over the past 12 years.
Despite precautionary measures by the Assam forest department, Sonitpur continues to be plagued by man-elephant conflict.
Besides, poaching of wild elephants for ivory is still carried on in the reserve forest areas of the west and east wildlife divisions in the district. Altogether 43 carcasses of wild elephants have been recovered in the past two years.
On March 6, the carcass of a seven-year-old wild male elephant was recovered from the Sonai-Rupai game sanctuary under Kolamati beat during the visit of chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Assam, Mohan Malakar, and the DFOs of West Sonitpur division. Official sources today said the elephant was killed a few days ago. Its tusks, each six inches in length, had been removed by poachers along with a portion of the trunk.
Earlier, in July 2001, nine carcasses of wild elephants were recovered from Nameri national park in Sonitpur.
According to veterinary experts, the elephants had been killed with a poisonous substance. Sources said carcasses of another five wild elephants were recovered from the adjoining two tea gardens near Tezpur in December last year. Another wild tusker was also found dead near Dheukhana hill in the Parbatia area near Tezpur two months ago.