M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, April 10: There was a massive search for a dead elephant alleged to have been buried without post-mortem in the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) area.
Many believed it was so. Many thought otherwise. PTR knew it has to bring out the fact for the sake of its own reputation and for the elephant.
Any wildlife that dies in the tiger reserve is post mortemed. Generally, it is post mortemed at the place where it dies.
So a search for the buried elephant was launched in the forests of the Bareysarn compartment 2 of the South division of the PTR which ended up with the recovery of a skull of a domestic animal.
This alleged stated to be the old burial of an elephant without post mortem was put up in the public domain with such authenticity that for any common man it looked like it must have happened.
The site of the burial was allegedly cited to be the jungle of the Bareysarn compartment 2.
The news of the clandestine burial of the elephant without its post-mortem triggered anxiety as well as panic in the PTR management.
To add grit to the allegation of the silent and hushed burial of the elephant without post mortem some wrappers of salt were found which added fuel to the speculation that salt was used to hasten the decomposition of the allegedly buried elephant. Salt decomposes dead wildlife faster.
Kumar Ashish, deputy director South division of the PTR on being asked by the correspondent on Sunday said, “When we learnt about this alleged clandestine burial of the elephant without having mandatory post mortem, we in consultation with our chief conservator of forest and field director Kumar Ashutosh decided to dig up the site where the elephant was allegedly buried.”
Ashish said: “Our first and foremost aim and objective was to find the alleged carcass of the buried elephant. It was never to contest what was viral about this elephant in social media.”
Ashish said, “We wanted to dispel our worst fears that such a clandestine act of burial could happen here in the PTR and if so, then it has to be curbed with a very firm hand.”
“We took down a JCB to the alleged site on Saturday. Media persons were present there, locals of Kujrum village and a handful of elected representatives were also there and in full daylight and in full public view the JCB began digging up and we finally got a skull of some domestic animal. There was no carcass of the elephant there.” said Ashish.
On being asked as to how such a malicious slur to the PTR management was so orchestrated to which Ashish point blankly refused to make any comment. He said the PTR seeks the cooperation of the locals in better and more effective monitoring and management of the wildlife here.
He said, “The PTR never hides or covers up the death of the wildlife. PTR has seen many deaths of elephants since its inception. In none of the cases, there was any attempt to hide or cover up its death. So where is the question for a silent and hushed burial of an elephant without its post-mortem?”
