Poachers luring elephants to swallow bombs – Forest cell police

The Forest cell of Karnataka police has stumbled upon evidence of poachers luring elephants to swallow bombs concealed in their food with a view to killing them.

According to Superintendent of Karnataka police’s Crime Investigation Department (Forest Cell) S D Jawaharlal, the post mortem report of at least two elephants, who were found dead under mysterious circumstances in the Bandipur wildlife sanctuary, had revealed that the jumbos had chewed explosives that had exploded in their oral cavity.

“Both the elephants might have consumed explosives hidden inside ragi flour balls. It appears to be an act of poachers”, Jawaharlal told reporters.

The post-mortem reports of the two elephants is part of a larger inquiry by the Forest Cell of the police department into the death of 16 elephants in Bandipur and adjoining Nagarhole national park between June 2006 and June 2007.

The revelations of the post mortem report have come as a shock to wildlife conservationists, who had expressed concern over the increasing number of elephant deaths reported in the Bandipur wildlife sanctuary situated on the Karnataka-Kerala border.

Though studies on elephant killings across the country have documented the death of the jumbos by shooting, poisoning and electrocution, besides spearing in a few tribal dominated states, the gruesome method of killing elephants for their valuable ivory by hiding explosives in its food has emerged as a new and growing phenomenon in South India.

According to Forest Cell officials, the poachers pack explosives in ragi flour balls, jackfruit, fodder and other edibles in the forest regions on the Karnataka-Kerala border. “When the elephant bites the bait, it triggers an explosion maiming the animal, which dies a painful death”, an official said.

The post mortem report on the death of one of the two elephants states “severe injuries with scuffing of lower lips, tongue, tissues of buckle cavity, multiple fracture of mandible and cranial bones” and adds that the jumbo had “chewed the concealed explosives that had exploded in its oral cavity”.

Inspector General of Police of Crime Investigation Department (Forest Cell) K S N Chikkerur said the police was suspecting the involvement of inter-state poachers in the killing of elephants with the use of explosives concealed in its food.