The forest department has dismissed four officials of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve (NTR) on charges of failing to notice an elephant death in the reserve. Earlier, a forest guard and three forest watchers were arrested while burning the carcass of a tusker inside the reserve. The four forest watchers were on contract from Veranahosahalli Range of NTR. The forest department team which was investigating a poaching case involving forest department officials, also found another carcass of a tusker inside the forests with its tusks removed.
“The four suspended forest watchers, worked in the anti poaching camp but they failed to notice the death of an elephant in their jurisdictional area. This is a serious offence, so two senior officers including the Range Forest Officer have been served showcause notices for failing to identify a dead elephant in his area,” said an investigating officer.Early this week, senor forest officials were tipped off about the poaching of an elephant by the department staff. None of the accused forest staff confessed to the offence and instead hatched a plan to eliminate the evidence when they realised the investigating team was planning a field visit, said sources.
Conservationists blame the lack of supervision at NTR because of the shortage of staff for such incidents. The Reserve is headless for the last one month with the conservator of forests of Bandipur Tiger Reserve given additional charge of Nagarhole.