Angry Indian villagers poison seven elephants for raiding crops
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
October 16, 2001
By WASBIR HUSSAIN; Associated Press Writer
GAUHATI, India - Angry villagers in northeastern India are poisoning wild elephants because they are fed up with the animals raiding their rice and sugarcane fields, wildlife officials said Tuesday.
"I have personally come across the carcasses of three elephants, including a tusker. We are combing the forests for more carcasses in view of unconfirmed reports that at least four other elephants may have died," said R.K. Das, a wildlife warden in Sonitpur district of Assam state. Das said police had been told that villagers in Haleshwar, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the state capital, Gauhati, had mixed poison with the food the elephants normally eat and left it in the forest thickets on Monday.
"We have started an investigation. But, it looks like a case of poisoning," Das said of the elephant carcasses he had seen. He said the Haleshwar villagers fired guns and arrows at the wildlife rangers who arrived Monday night to investigate the elephant deaths.
At least 100 people have been trampled to death in the past year in Assam. The forests are shrinking as people build more settlements and extend villages, and hungry elephants begin foraging for food in planted fields and even towns.
In July, 10 wild elephants died under mysterious circumstances around the 230 sq. kilometer (88 sq. mile) Nameri National Park, close to where Mondays incidents took place.
"Laboratory examinations revealed that consumption of food laced with Demicron, a pesticide used to ward off pests by farmers in the area, caused the death of those elephants," said H. Phukan, the forest officer in charge at the Nameri National Park.
Wildlife rangers said villagers had killed more than 200 elephants in Assam during the past five years, including shooting them with poison-tipped arrows.
Assam is home to about 5,500 of India's total wild elephant population of 10,000.
"Its indeed a delicate situation. We certainly cannot blame the elephants for their depredations, and at the same time, we are also aware of the miseries that the elephants have been unleashing on the people around the reserve forests," Das said.