The Union Ministry of Environment has announced the Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024, detailing regulations for the movement of captive elephants within and between states. These rules
The census of elephant and golden langoor is going on in the Ripun reserve forest under Kachugaon division in Kokrajhar district. In the census carried out in Central and Raimana range it pegged a total count of 125 elephants and 650 golden langoors, sources added. Speaking to the Sentinel RN Boro, DFO, Kachugaon said there were four ranges under Kachugaon division
An 18-year-old elephant was found dead on the banks of the Bhavani in the Periyanaickenpalayam range, 40 km from here, on Friday. A team led by veterinarian N.S. Manoharan and Range Officer Panneerselvam, after a post-mortem, suspected bacterial infection.
Pretoria: South Africa said on Monday that it will start killing elephants in order to reduce their burgeoning numbers, ending a 13-year ban and possibly setting a precedent for other African nations. Environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the government was left with no choice but to reintroduce killing elephants "as a last option and under very strict conditions' to reduce environmental degradation and rising conflicts with humans. There will be no "wholesale slaughter,' he told reporters. The announcement follows months of impassioned debate, with some conservationists arguing for elephant killings to protect the ecosystem, and animal welfare groups outraged at the prospect of slaughtering one of the planet's most intelligent and self-aware creatures. South Africa has been hugely successful in protecting its elephant population, once on the verge of extinction in parts of the country. But it has become a victim of its own success. The number of elephants, which have no natural predators other than humans, is growing at a rate of more than 5% a year and is expected to double by 2020. The big white hunter in the 1800s brought Africa's elephants near to extinction. Now South Africa, Namibia and Botswana have booming populations because of conservation efforts, while those of east and west African nations are struggling because of large-scale poaching. AP
The Jorhat Forest Division has begun an elephant count in the district from today. Assistant Conservator of Forests Gunin Saikia said that the exercise would continue for five days and would cover three forest reserves
The forest guards who had accompanied the 110-strong herd of jumbos, which had left a trail of death and destruction in three districts, up to the Kaziranga National Park (KNP), had breathed a sigh of relief too soon. Hardly had one week elapsed when the herd split and 70 per cent of the mammoths are wending their way back wreaking havoc in their wake. Yesterday night, 14 huts were destroyed at Dainigaon near Nimatighat.
BOKAKHAT, Feb 17
The Government has formulated guidelines for mercy killing of elephants suffering from debilitating injury in a bid to relieve the animal from pain and distress. The move has come in the wake of the case of Arundhati, an aging elephant which died after suffering for long due to a fractured leg in Uttrakhand late last year. While authorities debated over the mercy killing, the pachyderm went through severe agony in the process and died before it could be put to sleep.
The Assam Police today arrested three suspected wildlife poachers involved in illegal trade in wildlife organs from a hotel in Diphu, the district headquarters town of Karbi Anglong hill district, and recovered five pieces of ivory from their possession. Karbi Anglong additional superintendent of police (ASP) N.N. Goswami, who led the operation, informed that acting on a tip-off that traders in wildlife organs were camping in Diphu looking for buyers, the police set up decoys as buyers to track them.
The Citizens' Welfare Forum, Jorhat, has expressed serious concern over the depredations wreaked by herds of wild elephants in Jorhat and Majuli subdivisions. In a strongly-worded statement, office-bearers of the body have asked Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain to visit the jumbo-ravaged areas of Majuli to assess the losses suffered by poor sections of people residing on saporis. If an outcry is raised against the killing of rhinos in Kaziranga National Park, adequate attention should be paid to the rampage caused by wild elephants, too, the forum members reasoned.
Three wild elephants, which were tailing a herd towards Kaziranga National Park, trampled to death one Baap Hazarika (70) and injured two others at Sial Chapori near Dergaon last night. The body of the deceased man was recovered this morning. Hazarika is the fifth victim in jumbo attacks which took place in the riverine areas along the Brahmaputra river this year. Meanwhile, the marauding jumbo herd, which had been driven away towards the national park, destroyed the Mohpora forest camp under Agaratoli range of KNP. There are no reports of any casualty.
