Three more wild elephants die in MP's Bandhavgarh, toll rises to 10
Umaria (MP), Oct 31: Three more wild elephants have died in Madhya Pradesh's Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) after consuming a toxic substance, taking the toll to ten so far this week, a forest department official said on Thursday.
One tusker died on Wednesday evening and another two on Thursday," MP Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF-Wildlife) VKN Ambade told PTI over the phone from inside the reserve.
"At present, we have not found any foul play (in the death of elephants). I have visited so many nearby areas. I am not seeing any foul play as of now. But let us see what (autopsy and forensic) reports say," he said.
"A five-member team of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau from Delhi is in the reserve. The National Tiger Conservation Authority's Nagpur-based regional officer, assistant inspector general of forests Nandkishore Kale, was camping here to get first-hand feel of the situation," Ambade said.
"Our state tiger strike force is also doing investigations along with sniffer dogs," he added.
They have collected samples from nearby agriculture lands, paddy fields, water bodies and from fields where the elephants consumed kodo millets," he added.
When contacted over phone, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) L Krishnamoorthy said, "Autopsies have been conducted and veterinary doctors on the basis on circumstantial evidences have said toxicity has been observed in their stomach."
"Also, a lot of kodo millet has been found (in their stomach)," said Krishnamoorthy, who heads the state government-appointed five-member committee probing the death of tuskers in Bandhavgarh which is spread across Umaria and Katni districts in eastern Madhya Pradesh.
"We have sent samples (viscera) of elephants to Jabalpur-based School of Wildlife Forensic and Health (SWFH) for examination. Only forensic examination will reveal the toxin," Krishnamoorthy said when asked whether the dead elephants had consumed some poisonous pesticides sprayed in the field.
All the dead elephants were part of a herd of 13 which included one male jumbo that has died, he said.
The remaining three pachyderms from the herd are healthy and under continuous monitoring in the jungle, Krishnamoorthy informed.
Teams of wildlife health officers and Jabalpur-based SWFH have performed post-mortem examination of nine elephants and the autopsy of the tenth carcass will be done on Friday, he said later in a statement.
"Samples have been collected and they shall be sent to SWFH forensic lab for analysis. Veterinary doctors have indicated the chances of mycotoxins associated with kodo millet," Krishnamoorthy noted.
Mycotoxins generate cyclopiazonic acid that causes poisoning in kodo millet.
The forest department’s wildlife veterinarians are in regular touch and also consulting with experts of Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) Bareilly, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Dehradun, State Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar, and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Hyderabad to get in-depth details about the said mycotoxins, said the senior officer.
As per decisions of the Madhya Pradesh government, SIT and special task force teams are investigating the case with all possible angles, said the Indian Forest Service officer.
According to wildlife experts, this is perhaps the first instance in the country where ten wildlife elephants have died in a span of three days.
On Tuesday, four wild elephants were found dead in Salkhania and Bakeli areas under the Khitoli range of the reserve, a popular tourist attraction, during routine patrolling by forest guards. Subsequently, six more jumbos died on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Krishnamoorthy-led probe panel has been directed by the government to submit its report within ten days.
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Bihar: Estranged Nitish Kumar aide RCP Singh floats own party
Patna, Oct 31: Former Union minister RCP Singh, who had to quit his cabinet berth after falling out of favour with JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, on Thursday floated a new party "Aap Saabki Aawaz".
Talking to reporters here on the occasion, Singh said he chose the day for the launch as besides Dipawali, it was also the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.
Incidentally, Patel is seen as a cultural icon by the powerful OBC community Kurmi, to which both Kumar and Singh belong, and the latter profusely thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for celebrating the birth anniversary on a grand scale.
Singh, the bureaucrat-turned-politician, who did not take any question, did not speak on his relations with the JD(U), which he had once headed but left in disgrace, and the BJP, which he joined a year ago, only to remain sidelined.
He, however, made it clear that his party was looking forward to contesting the Bihar assembly polls due next year and already had prospective candidates for "140 out of 243 seats".
Singh indirectly targeted Kumar by attacking the much-touted prohibition law in the state and highlighting the deterioration in government education institutions, "a far cry from our student days when we could crack the civil services, without reservation facility and with no coaching".
Hailing from the same Nalanda district as the Bihar chief minister, Singh was an Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, and on central deputation, he first came in contact with Kumar, then the railway minister.
After assuming power in Bihar in 2005, Kumar, who was visibly impressed with the administrative acumen of Singh, persuaded the latter to come to Bihar as his principal secretary.
In 2010, Singh took voluntary retirement and joined JD(U) which helped him enjoy two consecutive terms in the Rajya Sabha.
However, in 2021, his induction into the Narendra Modi cabinet did not go down well with Kumar, who had by then grown suspicious that his protégé was planning a sabotage.
Singh was made to step down as national president of JD(U) within months of becoming the party president, and denial of another Rajya Sabha term a year later caused him to give up the ministerial berth.
By that time JD(U) rank and file was agog with rumours that Singh was plotting a split at the BJP's instance and served with a show cause notice over allegations of financial misappropriations that caused him to quit the party.
A year later, he joined the BJP which had by that time been dumped by Kumar who chose to realign a year later.
Later, Kumar's JD(U) emerged as a crucial ally of the BJP which is now short of a majority in Lok Sabha.
