Daily Pioneer

January 25, 2010

40 elephants done to death in 3 years

Inter-State ivory peddlers are flourishing in Kerala despite the vigil mounted by the police and Forest department. Authorities admit the number of elephants — both wild and tamed — falling victim to these rackets is increasing by the year. 

Forest officials call the criminals ‘ivory mafia’. Ivory worth crores of rupees had been seized by the department personnel in 2009 but smuggling of ivory has still not stopped. Officials say the seized ivory may not constitute even half the volume of the contraband being smuggled out of the State. 

According to the department, at least 12 wild elephants died in the past three years but when the bodies were found by wildlife guards, their tusks and teeth were missing. Officials say the ivory mafia manages to extract them before the Forest personnel spot the bodies. The department had identified at least three cases of poaching last year, all related to tusk-extraction and peddling. 

The average weight of the tusks of a fully grown tusker could come up to 75 kg. The domestic price of ivory is Rs 16,000 per kg and this could be much higher in the international market. This means that the tusks of an elephant could fetch up to Rs 12 lakh for the owner, the officials said.

“This is about the elephants that died of natural causes or in accidents. One estimate is that about 40 elephants had become victims of mafia-backed poachers in three years,” said an official. 

The usual method adopted by the poachers to kill wild elephants is to first catch them by planting allu — planks with nails jutting out — on the elephant corridors. Poachers also use low-intensity explosives hidden in huge balls of jaggery that explode in the mouths of the pachyderms. They also shoot elephants to death occasionally, according to officials. Since the killings take place in deep forests, the authorities come to know later. 

The Forest department has noted a new trend among the ivory-peddlers. The mafia is now focusing more on tamed elephants, he says. As many as 81 tamed elephants had died in Kerala in 2009, and most of these deaths were due to continuous torture by the owners, tamers and mahouts, he points out.

“Death of so many tamed elephants in a single year cannot be considered natural. It is true that not all elephants earn good money for their owners these days. So the easy wayout for loss-making owners is to allow their elephants to die when they grow weak. It is not difficult to get the normal insurance money with the help of a vet. And then there is the ivory," said the official. He added that the very fact that most of the 81 elephants died last year were aged between 19 and 38, and this was reason enough for suspicion. 

According to laws, the owner should inform the Chief Wildlife Warden whenever a tamed elephant dies. The owner could keep the tusks and teeth of the animal after examination by and approval from the department. The department is supposed to prepare a list of the pieces of ivory with the owner and their size, weight, the circumference of the tusks, etc should be determined and recorded. All the pieces of ivory have to be produced before the department at any time on demand. 

However, the usual practice is that the department forgets all about the ivory once the formalities are completed, giving the owner the opportunity to sell the ivory.