India: Four poachers have been arrested by a team of Bijnor forest department and police personnel for killing an elephant, chopping it into pieces and burying its carcass six months ago. Fifteen more people have been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act allegedly for helping to chop the carcass into small pieces and burying it. They continue to be at large. A double-barrel gun, bullets and a power cutter have been seized from them. 
Investigations revealed that the poachers had spotted a herd of five elephants and targeted a tusker, but a cow elephant was hit mistakenly. They chopped its carcass into small bits and buried them at different places. Though it took them hours to do this, the forest department officials did not get to know about the matter. 
A chance discovery of five pieces of rotting carcass near Ramjiwala village in Badhapur forest range on March 25, jolted the forest department to start probing the matter. In June, they filed a case under India Wildlife Protection Act and IPC’s section 379 (punishment for theft) against unidentified poachers. 

According to Najibabad divisional forest officer (DFO) Akhilesh Mishra, initially local police closed the case and submitted their final report, stating that no criminal could be traced. However, the case was reopened after STF, Lucknow and Delhi-based Wildlife Crime Bureau intervened in the matter. 

A fresh probe revealed that the elephant had not been poached in Corbett National Park as believed earlier but shot dead in Ramjiwala village area which is close to the Badhapur forest range. It came to the fore that an elephant herd had entered a sugarcane field and ravaged it, forest officials said. 

Four poachers, identified as Mohammad Aslam, Virasat, Shaukat and Nasir, spotted the herd and targeted the tusker but the bullet hit the cow on the head. Frightenedby the gunshot noise, the herd fled. The injured cow followed but collapsed 50 metres from the cane field.

To hide the elephant carcass, the poachers with the help of villagers, cut it into pieces and buried some parts in two dry riverbeds and dumped the remaining pieces in the forest area.

Bijnor superintendent of police Umesh Kumar Singh said, “Police have arrested the four accused and they have been sent to jail under judicial custody. The rest of the accused will be nabbed soon.”

For the past two years, around five wild elephants have been found dead here in Bijnor district. A few days ago, a tusker’s carcass was found in Amangarh forest area. It had two bullet holes and injury marks on its neck and head. It is suspected that it was killed by poachers.

(Source: The Times of India)