Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The special team formed by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Friday night reached Umaria to gather information related to the deaths of 10 elephants. So far, the team could not find anything substantial, which could hint towards any possible conspiracy or any such thing hitherto. The team comprising minister of state for forest Dilip Ahirwar, additional chief secretary, forest, Ashok Barnwal and head of Forest Force, Asim Shrivastava reached Umaria on Saturday and enquired the local forest officials in relation to the deaths of the elephants.
“So far, nothing such has been found which could point towards any possible conspiracy or any such thing,” said one of the members of the team. When contacted, forest minister Ramniwas Rawat said that currently, he is busy in his by-election preparations from the Vijaypur Assembly seat. But when he came to know about the deaths of elephants in Bandhavgarh, he had immediately informed the CM and formed a special team to investigate the matter.
In the meantime, the CM had also formed one committee on Friday night which will submit its report to the government on Sunday. Additional principal chief conservator of forest, Wild Life, L Krishnamoorthy, stated that as per the decisions of the state government, SIT and STSF teams are continuously investigating the elephant mortality case with all possible angles.
The WCCB Delhi team is also investigating the case. The team comprising the minister of State for forest also reached the spot to look after the investigation. Notably, forest officials believe that the elephants died after eating fungus-infected Kudo crop, which produced dangerous mycotoxin in their bodies. So far, test reports from forensic labs are awaited. In the meantime, the samples sent on October 30 to SWFH Jabalpur confirmed the poisoning effect. Further analysis was underway to know the exact reason.
