Bhubaneswar:Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today expressed his concern over the death of six elephants in Karlapat Wildlife sanctuary in Kalahandi district during the last two weeks and directed the officials to consult experts at national level to prevent further casualty.
Reviewing the situation through video conferencing Mr Patnaik directed the Forest and Environment and the Animal Resources departments to take steps jointly to prevent the death of elephants.
He advised the officials of both the department to take the advice of experts from the state as well as the country.
The Chief Minister directed the District Collector, DFO and the Chief District officials of the Animal Resources department to initiate steps for the vaccination of the domestic animals in the area close to the reserve forest.
He asked the officials to regularly disinfect all the water bodies inside the reserve forest and to test water samples of the water bodies immediately.
According to some experts the elephants in the reserve forest died of Hemorrhagic Septicemia due to an infection caused by a bacteria called Pasteurella Multoccida
There were eight elephants in a herd out of which six have already died.
Two more elephant herds were there in the region and steps have been taken to ensure that they are not infected.
Out of the 43 water bodies in the area 25 had already been disinfected and the process for disinfection of other water bodies is going on.
Ten teams have been constituted of Range Officer, Forester, Forest Guard to keep a strict vigil on the movement of elephants in two zones.
Steps are also being taken to form two state level expert team comprising of officials from Forest and Animal Resources department to assess the situation and vaccination of domestic animals in the nearby area
The IG Project Elephant and Director Wildlife Institute of India have been requested to send teams to advice and preventive measures to check the spread of the infection.(UNI)