Centre initiates inquiry into the death of 10 elephants in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi: The Central Government has initiated an inquiry into the death of ten elephants in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh.

“The patrolling staff of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve detected the death of four elephants in Salkhania beats of Pataur and Khiatuli range on 29th October. On further combing of the adjoining areas, six more elephants were found sick or unconscious in the vicinity, who died later,” the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change said.

“The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change has constituted a team to inquire into the death of ten elephants in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh. The team is conducting an independent inquiry in the matter,” it said.

Madhya Pradesh Government has also constituted a five-member State level committee, to inquire into the matter and submit a report to the Government. The five-member committee is headed by APCCF (Wildlife).

“The committee has members from civil society, scientist and veterinarian. The matter is also being inquired into by the Head of State Tiger Strike Force (STSF). The STSF has combed the forests and the adjoining villages and is conducting an in-depth inquiry about the incident,” the Ministry said.

As per the preliminary information shared by the concerned officers from the State of Madhya Pradesh, the death of the elephants may be because of poisoning. The final cause of death shall only be ascertained after through enquiry, detailed Postmortem reports, results of histopathological and toxicological reports and other corroborative evidences.

Further, preventive measures are being taken to avoid possibilities of such incidents by the State officials and monitoring of other elephant herds in and around Bandhavgarh reserve has been enhanced as informed by the officials.

The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden, Madhya Pradesh is camping in Bandhavgarh and supervising the inquiry and actions being taken in the matter. On the other hand, Additional Director General of Forests (Project Tiger & Elephant) & Member Secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority, along with AIG NTCA, Nagpur, have visited the sites and held discussions with the State officials on the various related issues and probable cause of the deaths of elephants.

The four sick elephants were succumbed to death on October 30th. Further, even after continuous medication and treatment, remaining two sick and unconscious elephants lost their lives on the next day. Out of those dead ten elephants, one was male and nine were female. Further, amongst the ten dead elephants, six were juvenile/subadults and four were adults. The information revealed that the herd of thirteen elephants had raided the Kodo millet crop in the vicinity of the forest.

The post-mortems of the ten elephants were conducted by a team of 14 veterinarians and wildlife specialists. Viscera samples collected during the examinations have been sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Izzatnagar, Bareilly, and to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Sagar for toxicological and histopathological analysis. Blood and additional samples were previously sent to the State Wildlife Health Facility (SWFH) on October 30, 2024.

Initial findings from these samples, collected during treatment of the sick elephants, suggest the possible presence of toxins.