Conservationists have expressed concern over the uncontrolled poaching of wild elephants in the eastern Tarai districts, suspecting that organised gangs and smugglers may be behind these crimes.
A wild elephant was found dead in Bahuban area of Ward 3 of Mechinagar Municipality in Jhapa on Thursday. The elephant was found dead near Dhardhare stream with deep injuries around its neck. A postmortem conducted by veterinarians and technicians of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve confirmed that the elephant had died of gunshot wounds. The elephant killed was a male, around 10 years old.
“During the autopsy, 15 musket fragments were found in the elephant’s body. The bull elephant died of gunshot wounds,” said Bed Prakash Bhandari, Jhapa chairman of the Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal.
On April 16, another wild elephant was found dead in the Kalika Community Forest in Ward 13 of Mechinagar Municipality. Both tusks of the 45-year-old bull elephant were missing. The postmortem report confirmed that poachers had killed the bull elephant with a musket. The poachers stole the elephant’s tusks, tail and hooves.
Conservationists suspect that a group of cross-border poachers and smugglers are involved in the uncontrolled poaching of wild elephants in the area.
“The frequent poaching and death of wild elephants is quite worrying. An organised group of poachers and smugglers might have been involved in these crimes. Tusks, tails and other body parts are removed from almost all elephants killed,” said conservationist Shankar Luitel, expressing concern over the increasing use of weapons in poaching wild elephants.
On January 1, poachers killed a wild elephant in Janajagaran Community Forest in Ward 10 of Sundar Haraincha Municipality in Morang district. According to Lal Bahadur Majhi, forest department officer at Salakpur in the district, the dead elephant had two bullet wounds. It is suspected that the smugglers killed the animal by chopping off its tail. Besides tusks, the hair on an elephant’s tail fetches a high price on the black market. The tail hair is used to make bracelets and other jewelry, along with gold.
The poaching in Mechinagar and Sundar Haraincha is almost similar. However, the attackers were unable to remove the tusks or tail of the elephant killed on Thursday.
Human-elephant conflict is a long-standing problem in the Eastern Tarai districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari. Bahundangi in Jhapa is one of the most affected settlements in Nepal by human-wildlife conflict. In the last 10 years, wild elephants have killed more than 50 people and destroyed properties worth millions of rupees.
According to environmentalists, Bahundangi and its surroundings serve as a migration corridor for elephants. Studies show that elephants from Assam and West Bengal in India migrate to the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in Nepal via Bahundangi. According to experts, human encroachment on the bio-corridor has led to repeated human-animal conflicts over the years.
Many elephants have been killed by electric traps in the area, but there have been recent reports of poaching using rifles and muskets.
According to the Jhapa Forest Department, four elephants were killed in Jhapa and two more were poached in Morang in the last three months. Three of them were electrocuted while an equal number of others were poached using guns and muskets.
“In the past, elephants were mainly killed with electric traps. But recently, it has become more common for pachyderms to be poached with muskets,” says Anjana Puri, a forestry official.
According to the forest department in Jhapa, a total of 21 wild elephants have been killed in Jhapa alone in the last two decades. Of these, only one was a female elephant.
People in the area have erected electric fences to protect their homes and fields from wild elephants. Most of the elephants have been killed by these electric traps. Environmentalists claim that the authorities concerned seem unwilling to take decisive action against the ongoing poaching of wild elephants.
“The poachers are emboldened by the authorities’ failure to take strong action against wild elephant poaching. The authorities should take strict measures to control the ongoing poaching of wild elephants,” said a conservationist who wished to remain anonymous.
