Row over elephant burial by Indian Army

[Guest guest]

The Asian Age, Guwahati, 03 November, 2005

 

Link: www.asianage.com (please refer to INDIA in the website to

reach this page).

 

 

Row over elephant burial

- By Manoj Anand

 

 

 

Guwahati, Nov. 2: The wildlife department of Assam government has

expressed deep anguish over the report that the Army has buried an

elephant in its cantonment area without informing them which is a

clear violation of the Wildlife Act.

 

The Army says it wasn't aware of the law but now the wildlife

department wants to know whether the elephant was killed as well.

However, no senior officer of the Army was available for immediate

reaction on the subject.

 

" A few days back I got information that a calf was buried in the

Army campus, so I asked the divisional forest officer of the Assam

state zoo to investigate the matter. Then some Army officials came

and said that such thing had happened. A written confessional

statement from the Army said that they did not know the law and it

was entirely due to ignorance, " said M.C. Malakar, chief wildlife

warden.

 

The cantonment is situated in outskirt of the Guwahati city, which

witnesses a lot of elephant movement. Frequently, herds come down

from the nearby hills and cross the paddy fields, destroying them in

the process. Often their target is the foodstuff stored in the Army

supply depot.

 

" In normal process, the Army used to take help of the forest

department to chase away the elephants but surprisingly they did not

inform the department about the dead elephant, concealing the fact

for a month, " the forest officials said.

 

" If insiders are to be believed the Army has dug traps in and around

its golf field to trap the elephants which frequently enters the

cantonment areas and upset the golf playing routine of senior

bureaucrats and Army officials of the state, " said wildlife activist

Sangeeta Goswami who alleged that several such incidents have taken

place in past also. " We have reported the incidents of killing of

deer by the Army personnel, " she said.