India: Around 50 elephants have died in the State during last 11 months in the State of which 29 cases were found to be ‘unnatural deaths’ while reasons of five deaths could not be ascertained.

This was revealed at the second Gajah Bandhu meet organised by the organised by the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) in collaboration with the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and Elephant Family (EF) in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

Gajah Bandhu is a network of wildlife volunteers, activists, VSS leaders, honorary wildlife warden formed on May 3 last year. It was alleged in the meet that despite allocation of crores of rupees of budget for protection of elephants, there has been no visible improvement in safety for elephants.

Twenty eight participants from elephant-bearing districts like Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Cuttack and Deogarh attended the meeting.

“The government had patted during the wildlife week in October claiming that they have drastically reduced electrocution deaths, but within just 55 days after that, 10 elephants were electrocuted to death, five by sagging electric lines and five by live wire traps set by poachers,” said Gaja Bandhu convenor dr Biswajit Mohanty.

(Source: News 7)