The carcass of an elephant with missing tusks was located at Sirum jungle on Monday morning, thereby, putting the ground level staff of the forest officials in the Chandil forest range on red alert. The forest, which lies close to the West Bengal border, falls under the Nimdih thana area in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district is about 60 kilometeres away from Jamshedpur.

The forest department is on high alert, as the tuskless carcass suggests the possibility of a gang of poachers still being active in the Chandil forest range.

Talking about the incident forest range officer of Chandil, Ashok Kumar maintained that the circumstances under which the elephant died are unclear. But it was certain that the tusks were missing from the carcass.

“We are not very clear about who killed the tusker. We still need to ascertain if it was killed by poachers or villagers. But some people with a criminal bent of mind certainly cut off its tusks, in the most unprofessional way. We have put the forest guards on alert so that no tusker may fall victim to such cruelty,” said Kumar while talking to The Telegraph Online.

The range officer added that an autopsy would be performed to ascertain the cause of its death. He said, “The elephant’s viscera have been sent to the Ranchi-based forensic science lab for an examination so that the cause of death can be ascertained.”

He added, “As the carcass was about a fortnight-long, the age of the killed elephant could not be ascertained.”

According to him, it could take a month for both the autopsy and viscera examination report to be ready but they had already begun to trace people involved in sawing off the tusks. He said that the tusks had been cut in the most unprofessional manner; hence it could be the work of locals. He added that these individuals could be easily traced.

The spot where the tusker was found lying dead is about 100 feet away from Purulia’s Madha range. For the uninitiated, a large number of elephants from the Madha range tend to cross over to the Sirum jungle in Jharkhand and vice-versa regularly.

According to sources in the forest department, paddy is cultivated in a small patch of rayati land which lies between Sirum jungle and Madha range. They suspect villagers having poisoned the tusker to prevent a herd of elephants from destroying the standing paddy crops. They believe that the villagers might have sawed away the tusks after the elephant died.

“Chandil forest range falls under territorial forest area. Hence, there is no provision for engaging forest protection volunteers (FPVs), unlike the adjoining Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary. The forest department has to depend largely on the forest guards to protect wild elephants in the range area. In the Dalma wildlife, the forest guards and FPVs work in tandem for the protection of the wild elephants, thereby making the chances of foul play negligible,” said an official posted at the Chandil forest range.