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Forest officials recovered the remains of a wild elephant cow from the Numaligarh Refinery Limited’s (NRL) Township near the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) in Assam on the morning of July 19, 2024. Conservationists in the state are crying foul, accusing a section of refinery officials for trying to cover-up the incident.
According to NRL Liaison Officer, Mintu Handique, the elephant was electrocuted on July 18 morning in the Butterfly Park situated within the NRL Township. “Elephants do come to the township as there is a habitat next to the NRL campus. It seems the elephant hit an exposed electrical wire, which killed it. Terrified about the consequences of a dead elephant in the township, some of the staff buried the remains. However, when the management was informed, we intervened and called forest officials as it would violate wildlife laws,” Handique told Down To Earth (DTE). NRL officials said the forest department is already conducting an inquiry on the allegations.
Sushil Kumar Thakuria, Golaghat divisional forest officer, told DTE that they regard the incident as a wildlife crime. “We were informed about the incident on July 18 evening. Since it was dark, we could only recover the remains of the female elephant on July 19 morning. We are investigating this case as a wildlife crime as the elephant was buried without informing the forest officials,” added Thakuria. The forest official further added that the post-mortem of the elephant is being conducted, based on which he would be able to comment on the exact cause of death.
On the other hand, environmental activist and journalist from Golaghat, Apurba Ballav Goswami said the culprits responsible for burying the elephant should be brought to justice through a proper enquiry. “Elephants are protected by Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The unnatural death in an oil refinery township due to electrocution and attempts to cover up the issue attracts heavy punishment under the Act. These electrical lines belong to NRL, which were carelessly laid in the area where the incident took place. Elephants regularly visit it. This incident calls for a thorough investigation,” Goswami told DTE.
Being only 20-odd kilometres away from KNPTR, NRL Township has been in the throes of controversy due to negative human-elephant interactions. NRL planned an expansion of the township along with a golf course through the neighbouring forest habitat of the elephants and started construction of a 2.2-kilometre-long wall in 2014. In August 2016, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered NRL to pull down the wall built over the Deopahar Elephant Corridor, which connects to KNPTR. NGT also asked NRL to pay Rs 25 lakh to the Assam Forest Department for destroying a forest and a hill to build a golf course. The tribunal also directed NRL to conduct compensatory afforestation of 10 times the number of trees felled during the construction of the township.
NRL filed review petitions in the NGT and also approached the Supreme Court, which were rejected by both courts. Earlier this year, NRL also approached the Gauhati High Court, which rejected its petition and ordered the wall’s demolition. It was only in April 2024 that a portion of the wall was brought down by the Golaghat district administration. Wildlife activist and former State Board of Wildlife Member, Mubina Akhtar, however said that even now, some of NGT’s orders have not been complied with. “The NGT was very clear about conducting compensatory afforestation and removal of all structures from the said wildlife corridor in Deopahar. However, these orders have not been fully complied. This incident happened because NRL Township was built over an elephant habitat,” Akhtar told DTE.
As the forest department investigates the death of the elephant, Assam has been recording increasing cases of deaths of both humans and elephants, crop raiding and destruction of houses. According to a recent study published by Biodiversity and Conservation Journal, 80 elephants and 70 humans die each year on average because of negative human-elephant interactions in Assam.