Famed mahout blamed for a death

The questions that are being raised are that why is the capturing elephants the only solution to man-elephant conflict? Should archaic methods like this of taming them be allowed? Angry wildlife enthusiasts gathered to raise these as Pandey showed the three-hour long footage of the slow torture of the elephant in captivity. While anger is directed towards her by Delhi-based wildlife experts, Barua is still in the interiors and unable to defend her methods.

This particular group of elephants have strayed into Chattisgarh from Jharkhand and Orissa as a result of human encroachment and tree-felling. Since the new forest is also degraded, they indulge in crop-raiding and even kill villagers.

Barua was assigned this job after 35 people had been killed in the last six months. In the last two months, Barua only managed to capture only one elephant.

‘‘It is a state government operation and they do not need to take permission from us when problematic elephants are concerned,’’ said S S Bist, Director, Project Elephant who also happens to be Barua’s husband.

The elephant christened Basant Bahadur was first lassoed on February 5 in Narayanpur area of Jaspur forest division by using an old technique called mela shikar which involves making the wild elphant run a long distance to tire it out and then shooting it with tranquiliser darts before a noose is thrown around its neck. Once it collapses, a thick rope is tied around its neck pulled away flanked by tame elephants.

The footage shows outstretched legs tied with several ropes around the neck, tusks being sawed off and the elephant being jabbed with spikes drawing blood. This was apparently done to exposed the nerves so that the animal would not attack. In the last few days, it is seen struggling to get up from the ground and foam coming out of its trunk.

The elephant died 18 days after its captivity. A villager in the film says ‘‘it would have been better if the elephant had been shot initially instead of torturing it slowly.’’ Not available for comment today, Barua on on camera is saying that ‘‘the elephant was quite young and maybe was not able to get over his azaadi (freedom).’’

According to the post-mortem report, the elephant died of acute stress, dehydration and lack of food. Fourty-five bottles of glucose and anti-biotics were pumped into its body but it was too late.

‘‘The first thing that needs to be done is to de-stress the animal. We are going to show that there are safer ways of doing this,’’ said Vivek Menon, Director, Wildlife Trust of India.

In 1993, the first major man-animal conflict took place on Sarguja district of Madhya Pradesh and for the first time in the world a herd of 18 elephants was captured using a chemical-capturing system. They were trained, rehabilitated and inducted in forest service.

Nine years later, a herd of 14 elephants appeared in the same area of Chattisgarh. ‘‘At that time also I had asked the question that is it the right thing to do as the vaccuum is filled by a new herd of elephants again,’’ said Pandey who had made a film The Last Migration: Wild Elephant Capture in Sarguja. He was wanting to film the second operation similarly.

‘‘This deliberate torture will not do. There are enough examples of safer ways in the world,’ said Grace Gabriel, Deputy Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare.

There is also a suggestion that this group be moved into the Sanjay Gandhi National Park which could be decent habitat for them.