BHUBANESWAR: A day after Similipal was rocked by the news __ poaching of four elephants __ the Forest and Environment Department on Monday pressed the panic button. Chief Wildlife Warden Janardan Dibakar Sharma has proceeded to the tiger reserve to take stock. He would visit Nawana South Range and assess the ground scenario. Sharma told this paper on Monday that the department would initiate criminal investigation into the incident, if necessary. Given the circumstances, the first priority is to ascertain the cause of deaths.

BARIPADA: Forest officials are all set for this year’s elephant census. It will be conducted simultaneously in Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts besides West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand between June 1 and June 3. The synchronised census has been aimed at averting the overlap since pachyderms migrate across boundaries in search of fodder and water.

Regional Chief Conservator of Forests(RCCF) Anup Nayak said this time two traditional methods would be adopted to count the elephants.

With escalating man-elephant conflicts and more than 20 elephant deaths from in and around Simlipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Odisha, nearly 100 villages have been involved in a campaign “Haathi Mere Saathi” aimed at befriending the national heritage animal with common man. Basically, an initiative of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), the campaign has been taken up in the tiger reserve along with the forest divisions of Karanjia, Baripada and Rairanpur which are amongst the worst-hit in man-elephant conflicts.

Simlipal Tiger Reserve, the fourth biggest tiger reserve in the country, may soon go the Sariska way with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) pointing out an “alarmingly low prey base” due to hunting by tribals living on the fringes here. The reserve, spanning over 2,750 sq km area in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa, has been in news since 2009 with Maoists overrunning the park and subsequently, when it was found that 14 elephants were killed by poachers through poisoned arrows or gunshots between April and May 2010.

Three days after a mob stormed into the core area of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) threatening the field staff to go on a hunting spree, the park officials on Friday arrested as many as 35 poachers. Fifteen guns and animal meat were also seized from their possession. Sleuths from three divisions including Baripada, Karanjia and STR Deputy Director, raided Upper Barahkamda and Kaptipada ranges and nabbed the poachers, who had apparently sneaked into the forests and started hunting.

COUNTRY’s FIRST: Fifty-four personnel were given three-month training to provide them with skills such as how to survive in the jungle and use of weapons like SLR, assault rifles, LMG and grenades, The STPF unit will be divided into three groups and will be solely responsible for taking anti-poaching measures, including the power to shoot, After Karnataka, Orissa is next in line for raising a Special Tiger Protection Force for its Simlipal tiger reserve

BHUBANESWAR: In a significant breakthrough in elephant poaching case, the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) joint team on Monday arrested four persons, including the kingpin, for their involvement in the jumbo killings.
The team arrested the kingpin, Mohan Majhi, his two associates and Sarfaraz, who acted as middleman. They were rounded up from Bakula, a peripheral village of STR.

BHUBANESWAR: The Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) authorities have sought the help of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) to track those behind the latest elephant poaching in the national park.

With the aim of ensuring safe movement of tigers into different landscapes, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is re-establishing tiger corridors. Two such corridors involve Madhya Pradesh but existing natural corridors like Kanha-Pench, Kanha-Achanakmar etc do not figure in this list, which has disappointed experts.