Ganjam jumbo deaths: 4 forest staff suspended

Berhampur: Four forest staff have been suspended over the death of two elephants in Ganjam’s Ghumusar North forest division in a fortnight.
“Srikant Nayak and Sriman Padhi, forester and forest guard respectively of Mauzagarh range and Suravi Tripathy and Dhanurdhar Behera, forester and forest guard of Jagannath Prasad range have been suspended for dereliction of duty,” said Sudarshan Behera, divisional forest officer, Ghumusar North, on Saturday.
While forest officials recovered the carcass of a male elephant with a portion of one of its tusks missing near Kandha Nuapalli village on Wednesday, the carcass of another bullet-ridden male elephant with its tusks removed was found from Kanduribadi under Mauzagarh range recently.
Three poachers were arrested in the Mauzagarh case. “We have intensified patrolling in Kandha Nuapalli. Three persons have been detained and a search is on to recover the missing tusk,” Behera added.
“It’s a matter of concern that two jumbos were killed for ivory within a fortnight,” said Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife activist.
He urged the government to take stringent action against poachers.