Kuldiha forest staff recover tusks from villagers

Bhubaneswar: Officials of Kuldhia wildlife sanctuary on Friday claimed to have recovered two tusks that the villagers had removed from a decomposed carcass found inside the sanctuary five days ago.
Forest officials said they recovered the two tusks from the villagers, suspected to be poachers. The villagers took out the tusks after the carcass decomposed, officials said.
The department has launched a probe to find out if it was killed by poachers. It also conducted a postmortem of the carcass to find out if there was external or internal injury that led to its death.
“We have recovered the tusks but we are not sure how the elephant died. Since the carcass got decomposed, the cause of death is not known,” said Prakash Gogoneni, regional chief conservator of forests, Baripada.
Kuldhia sanctuary, close to Similipal Tiger Reserve is spread over 227 sq km. It is home to several varieties of prey animals. It is primarily a robust elephant habitat.
Leopards are also sighted in the sanctuary. In the past Kuldhia had come to the limelight for elephant death and tusks missing.
“We have activated the intelligence network to find out if poachers are active along the sanctuary’s borders. We are also trying to find out the loose ends in the protection mechanism because the sanctuary is small and monitoring shouldn’t be an issue. Also, the villagers from whom the tusks were recovered have been booked for possessing wildlife article illegally,” said regional chief conservator of forests, Baripada.