TN plans audit framework for jumbo deaths

CHENNAI: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the State government on Thursday constituted a four-member panel to put in place an Elephant Death Audit Framework (EDAF) to carefully assess, document and examine the cause and circumstances related to each wild elephant death in Tamil Nadu.

A central database will be used to generate patterns for framing appropriate policy and taking field-level decisions. The GO was issued by Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Environment, Climate Change and Forests Department.

The GO mandates the committee of Akash Deep Baruah, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Project Tiger); Deepak Bilgi, Conservator of Forests and Field Director, Megamalai Tiger Reserve; K Rajkumar, Special Secretary (Forests), and H Dileep Kumar, Deputy Director, Megamalai Tiger Reserve, Srivilliputhur to develop the framework within five working days. The panel can co-opt domain experts like forest veterinary officers, biologists, and Wildlife Institute of India for developing the framework.

‘Documentation crucial to get to root cause of death’

“A systematic necropsy examination gives information about the mode of death and provides valuable legal evidence in cases of poaching. It is also an important tool for monitoring the health of elephants. A proper diagnosis of the cause of death provides information required for planning preventive and remedial measures,” the GO said.

“We want to look into the events and circumstances that lead to the death of an elephant, which may provide important clues on diseases, ageing or human-elephant conflict. The framework will spell out in detail what information should be gathered by field personnel and documented in case of a death.

The forensic, postmortem and circumstantial evidence will be collected and correlated before concluding the cause of death and fixing accountability,” Sahu told TNIE, adding wild elephants need protection against poaching and diseases and that the entire audit exercise will be documented digitally for easy access and analyses.

M Ananda Kumar, a scientist at the Nature Conservation Foundation, said scientific documentation of wildlife deaths is crucial to get to the root of the problem. A Wildlife Crime Control Bureau report had also specifically highlighted instances of underreporting of poaching cases and deliberate allowing of key accused to go scot-free, especially in the Coimbatore division.

“For the murder of three elephants during three different times in the same range by the same gang only one case was registered against it at Sigur Range of the division. Only two or three persons’ names were mentioned as accused. Though the statement of the accused is very clear about the people involved, their names were not included as accused and cases framed were very week,” the WCCB report said.