ENSURING THE SAFETY OF ELEPHANTS

A recent case of poaching has sparked concerns about trade in wildlife products

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During the 1990s and early 2000s, the forest brigand, K. Veerappan, who held sway over the forests of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, was notorious for poaching elephants for ivory. While that is now a distant memory for most people, the recent poaching of an elephant in Pennagaram taluk in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu once again highlights how the illegal, lucrative trade in wildlife products continues to pose an existential threat to the safety of wild elephants.

On February 27, poachers shot dead an elephant and burnt the carcass in a bid to destroy evidence. The incident sent shock waves through the Forest Department, which discovered the carcass a few days later, and among animal lovers. The Department detained one of the alleged poachers, G. Senthil. A fortnight later, Senthil was found dead in the forest with a rifle on his remains. While officials have claimed that a handcuffed Senthil assaulted the forest staff and escaped, Senthil’s family and activists have raised suspicions that he could have been the victim of an “extrajudicial killing”.