11-member committee to investigate elephant deaths

An 11-member committee has been formed to investigate repeated instances of elephant carcasses being found in a river in the Malayattoor Forest Division. The committee will be chaired by Chief Forest Conservator D.K. Vinod Kumar. Chief Wildlife Warden Pramod G. Krishnan issued the order forming the committee.  

The committee comprises Chief Forest Conservator Adalarasan; Malayattoor Divisional Forest Officer  P. Karthik; Munnar Divisional Forest Officer Saju Varghese; Chief Forest Veterinary Officer Arun Zakaria; Assistant Forest Conservator Manu Sathyan; Divisional Forest Officer M.G. Vinod Kumar; Divisional Forest Officer Jyotish Ozhakkal; DFO Veena Devi; College of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Mannuthy HOD Shyam K. Venugopal; and Assistant Forest Veterinary Officer Benoy C. Babu. 

‘Foul play’

The frequent cases of elephant deaths in the areas of Malayattoor Forest Division in the district had raised suspicions of foul play and there were demands for a scientific investigation into the matter. 

The expert committee will have to file the report in a month. The investigation report has to be submitted detailing post-mortem procedures and reports; reasons for the recurrence of such incidents in the same area; occurrences of suspicious, illegal or criminal incidents; interventions carried out by the Forest department, and whether there were any lapses in the execution of official duties. 

Possible reasons

Forest officials had earlier suggested that the elephants must have slipped into the water while crossing the streams or slipped off the rocky terrains in the forest sector. Death due to disease or poisoning hasn’t been ruled out yet. Environmentalists have cited the possibility of the animals being poisoned by illegal brewers and forest encroachers.