10 of its herd dead, lone tusker guards a mass burial in Bandhavgarh reserve

At the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, wherever the deaths took place, a JCB instrumentality poured soil and brackish into an unfastened pit, portion wildlife officers placed flowers wrong the grave, bidding farewell to the gentle giants.

Adjacent to the burial pits is simply a makeshift post-mortem facility, wherever veterinarians tin perceive the lone elephant’s sorrowful mourn. A veterinarian, exhausted from conducting autopsies of the dormant tuskers for the past 2 days, choked with emotion: “Everyone is heartbroken. We could not behaviour the post-mortems decently arsenic the elephant would complaint astatine us, reasoning it tin inactive prevention its family. We had to pursuit it distant with JCB machines.”

Pushpendra Nath Dwivedi, a erstwhile wildlife warden who has worked intimately with the elephants since they arrived successful Bandhavgarh successful 2018, has been supervising villagers to acceptable up defender posts, and advising them to pain chilli fume to pursuit distant the lone elephant.

“Elephants came to this country successful 2018… calfs, mothers and lone bulls, everyone called Bandhavgarh their home. They were a adjacent knit household and are mourning the loss. The bull keeps returning to the pits wherever the elephants are buried, hoping to spot its household 1 past time. It should permission for nutrient successful immoderate time,” Dwivedi said.

The different survivors are a 10-year-old pistillate elephant and a two-year-old calf. They are being intimately tracked by the wildlife department, which has present begun destroying kodo millets and promised to compensate the farmers.

According to experts, elephants roamed freely crossed Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh centuries ago, erstwhile they would beryllium captured by the Mughal service for usage successful battle. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, “a tiny colonisation of elephants migrated from Jharkhand and Odisha into what was past Madhya Pradesh” owed to situation demolition by mining, logging and industrialisation. This explains wherefore elephants successful this corridor had to undertake long-distance migrations seeking refuge successful tiny patches of forest.

On October 31, 2018, a herd of elephants made a important travel into Bandhavgarh, entering done the Panpatha buffer scope from the Shahdol wood division. In the beginning, the elephants “displayed exploratory behaviour, traversing each the ranges”. Then they began raiding crops and destroying wood camps.

“They near aft exploring the wood reserves and re-entered the reserve successful December, 2018. This time, they decided to stay. A monitoring squad was formed to perpetually way their movements. The herd began to turn and I had helped successful spreading consciousness of elephants successful 10 villages arsenic portion of a task to guarantee they were not harmed,” Dwivedi said.

By 2023, Bandhavgarh was location to astir 48-50 elephants, divided into 3 groups, with predominant visits to areas of the Shahdol wood part and Chhattisgarh, officials said.

After the caller deaths, frantic telephone calls were made by MP wildlife officers to Dr P K Chandan, the Additional Deputy Director astatine Kanan Pendari Zoological Garden successful Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur for his guidance.

Chandan has worked intimately with elephants that routinely participate Madhya Pradesh from Chhattisgarh and has acquisition successful treating elephants with toxic corruption from kodo millets.

“Elephants devour kodo each the mode from Chhattisgarh to Madhya Pradesh. It is not their preferred repast but they devour it nevertheless. If they devour ample amounts, it tin origin issues. In Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur and Surajpur, four-five elephants were recovered unconscious aft eating kodo millets, but were treated owed to timely intervention. We past tested goats which were fed kodo millets — they besides became unconscious and immoderate of them died. It tin pb to terrible tummy ache and haemorrhage successful the intestines, which kills the animal. This happens erstwhile it eats implicit 5 kg of kodo millets,” Chandan said.

Ever since this finding, the Chhattisgarh wildlife section has asked farmers to desist from increasing kodo millets and has adjacent offered fiscal assistance to erect star powered electrical fences to support elephants distant from farms.

However, successful Madhya Pradesh, it’s a antithetic story. Sources successful the section wildlife section accidental determination is nary specified statement here.

“The elephant task which was tally successful these parts suffered from deficiency of funding. There are nary elephant mitras (friends) successful the country wherever the elephants were recovered dead. There is simply a unit of four-five officers tasked with patrolling 1 bushed and they could not spot these animals connected time. Timely attraction could person saved them. Some posters person been erected by section NGOs connected elephant attraction but villagers don’t recognize what is written. The compensation argumentation is besides bad. If they were assured of timely compensation, the villagers would cooperate with the wildlife department,” said a elder official.

For now, wildlife officials are keeping a adjacent oculus connected the remaining survivors. On Thursday, the antheral elephant returned, this clip with different herd of 25 elephants, and entered a adjacent kodo millet farm.

“It’s going to beryllium hard to destruct each kodo farms. This is simply a information to each elephants successful Bandhavgarh. We are tracking down each kodo plants and burning them. As for the remaining survivors, they should articulation a caller herd. But they are highly affectional animals and person a large memory. They volition ne'er hide what happened to their family,” Dwivedi said