Rajaji National Park: Barely 11 months after the gory killing of five tuskers in Corbett National Park, poachers have struck again, this time in the adjoining Rajaji National Park. Two tuskers were poisoned to death and their tusks chopped off with axes in the Ghori Range of the park. Some villagers, who reside inside the park, discovered the bodies of the elephants on December 9. Rajaji authorities fear that the poachers may still be inside the park and may have poisoned more elephants.

Mud tracks in the forest show that one of the tuskers, a young, sub-adult male, apparently dragged itself on its forelegs for over a kilometer before collapsing. The second elephant was found some distance away from the first. Rajaji National Park is a protected area covering 840 kilometers of pristine forest area, located in the northern India state of Uttaranchal and has a contiguous boundary with Corbett National Park.

The Corbett, National park, Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary and the Rajaji National Park together hold the largest concentration of Asian elephant tuskers in the world. Out of the 1,000 plus elephants that live in this range, more than a third are believed o be male tuskers. (Among the Asian elephants only males grow tusks. Some males who do not grow tusks are called makhnas.) Experts believe that the adult male to female ratio in this range is 1:2, the best anywhere in the Asian elephant’s range.

The Asian elephant’s range extends from India to Indonesia, covering 13 countries in South and Southeast Asia. These countries include: Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka Myanmar, Thailand, China, Laos, Kampuchea, Vietnam and Malaysia. Of the global population of 45,000 Asian elephants more than 50 per cent are found in India.

The largest populations in India are found in the Northeast and southern states. Poaching in these areas have been at such a large-scale that the male to female ration has dropped to 1:25. The Corbett-Sonanadi-Rajaji belt had been relatively free of elephant poaching, until poachers stuck there last January, killing seven tuskers. However, poachers in this region have regularly killed big cats like the tiger and leopard and deer.

Mk Ashok Kumar, trustee and senior advisor of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) said: “Ivory traders found it increasingly unprofitable to collect from the South, which was the traditional source, it was just a matter of time before the attention shifted to the population in Corbett-Sonanadi-Rajaji belt.”

The elephants were killed barely 25 km from the holy town of Rishikesh, famous for the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Swami Sivananada. A forest tribal (Van Gujjar) from Ganga Bhogpur village, barely a kilometer away from the scene of the crime, was the first to discover the bodies. The Gujjar lady was collecting firewood when she stumbled upon the dead body of one of the elephants and informed the forest ranger of the deaths. Mr. Sunil Pande, park director, also rushed to the spot. He told newspersons that one of the elephants was 9ft 4 inches tall and 35 years old. The poachers have hacked the elephants’ trunk with axes to extract the tusks, he said. This elephants he said has been frequently spotted in this range and was last seen by the ranger on December 3. He said that the elephants were probably killed on the night of December 4-5.

Tissue samples from the elephants have been sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Barailey to determine the cause of death.

The Uttaranchal Chief Wildlife Warden AS Negi said the park has been closed to visitors and four platoons of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) have been rushed to the park. Along with 300 forest guards and rangers, the PAC platoons have begun coming the park for the poachers. The government has also announced a reward of Rs. 50,000 to anyone providing information about the poachers that will lead to their arrest.

Mr. Negi has also ordered an inquiry into the incident and has said that punitive action will be taken against the staff found guilty of dereliction of duty. He said a villager and not the forest staff had spotted the dead bodies, which indicated dereliction of duty.

Mr Negi said the adjoining Corbett Park has also been put on alert, as he feared that the poachers could have escaped into Corbett. “We are not taking any chances,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has rushed Rs 10,000 (US$500) emergency fund to the forest department to be used during the current operations to trace the poachers. WTI trustee Kumar has also promised further assistance to the park, as and when they require it. “We have also activated our intelligence network and will pass on any information that we gather about the suspects to the park authorities,” he said. Earlier last month, WTI had trained all the forest staff of Rajaji National Park in anti-poaching skills and equipped them with an anti-poaching kit. The kit consisted of a sleeping bag, jacket, ground sheet, torch, water bottle, rucksack, all-weather boots and a cap.