Assam: Baby elephant’s carcass recovered

BOKO: A wild baby elephant’s carcass was recovered by local people of the Hahim area under the Singra Forest Range Office along the Assam- Meghalaya border on Monday. The body of the baby elephant was found on the banks of the Singra River in Hahim. After the incident, a team reached the site including West Kamrup DFO Dimpy Bora, Kamrup District Administration along with a Boko Police team.

DFO Dimpi Bora said a team of veterinarians will arrive from Guwahati on Tuesday morning to conduct post-mortem. Bora also added, “A herd of wild elephants is roaming in Hahim area, so forest department and police will launch an operation tonight to drive them away from the residential area.”

“Section 144 has been imposed in the Hahim and surrounding areas for security reasons for one day”, DFO Bora added.

The herd of the wild elephants had been infesting the Hahim area for the past week. They were destroying paddy fields, banana plantations and houses in Hahim and border villages.

Local groups in Hahim have already alleged that the body of the calf was found near the site of illegal sand and sand gravel mining. Aschyut Rabha, president of the Hahim regional unit of the Sixth schedule demand committee of Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council area said, “Due to mining of sand and other materials with the help of excavators from the river, many deep ditches have been created and the baby elephant along with a herd of elephants who have come to drink water from the river had fallen down in the ditch and died.”

However, Mridul Rabha, the president of the All Rabha Students’ Union’s Hahim section, claimed that when the elephant herd was attempting to cross the river, a baby elephant had slipped into a trench that had been made as a result of sand mining. Rabha further claimed that these kinds of accidents occurred in the Hahim area because sand smugglers were mining the river as a result of the state forest department’s neglect.

The residents of the Hahim area also alleged that the herd of wild elephants has been causing terror in the Hahim area every year but the Forest Beat Office in Hahim has not taken any steps to drive them away. Villagers have lost their lives in man-elephant confrontations as a result of wild elephants damaging public facilities, rice fields, banana and pineapple gardens, and many wild elephants.”

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