Forest officials unhappy with elephant order

The recent directive from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to shift all the elephants from zoos and circus to national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and Project Tiger, has sparked a heated debate among forest department officials across the state. “All the elephants in zoos and circus have to be sent to elephant camps of forest department,” said BK Gupta, CZA.

However, the directive is likely to prove to be a huge problem for the forest department. “First of all we do not need any elephants. There is nothing that we can do with them. If sent to us, it would be a huge financial burden on the department,” said a senior forest department official. At present, there are around 15 elephants in the service of state forest department at Alapalli, Sironcha in Gadchiroli district, Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) in Amravati district and Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Chandrapur district.

“All these elephants, except for those in MTR and TATR, are used to move logs. Now, even the tree felling activities are reduced. The department is already facing financial problems and the elephants would only add to it,” said the official.