The probe committee constituted by chief minister Mohan Yadav to find out the cause of the recent deaths of ten elephants in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Madhya Pradesh has found ‘no evidence so far’ to establish any kind of foul play in the tragic incident, a member of the panel said on Sunday. The panel headed by state’s junior forest minister Pradeep Ahirwar visited the area in BTR where ten pachyderms died in mysterious circumstances over three days since October 29 to make an on-the-spot enquiry into the incident following a directive by the chief minister, sources said. Mr Yadav who reviewed the situation at an emergency high level official meeting here a couple of days ago was said to be not convinced about the theory that the tuskers may have died after consuming huge amount of kodo (millet) crop and constituted a probe panel to dig out the fact behind the tragedy, a senior officer told this newspaper on Sunday, requesting not to be quoted.
Other members of the probe panel are additional chief secretary (forest and environment) Ashok Barnwal and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Aseem Srivastav. “No evidence to suggest any kind of foul play in the deaths of the ten elephants has so far been established. However, the exact cause of death of the pachyderms can be known after forensic and other relevant reports come”, Mr Srivastav told this newspaper.
Samples of viscera of the dead elephants have been sent to the School of Wildlife and Fore.