Elephant shot dead, tusks hacked
Villagers of Ghilalota found a dead tusker in the waters of the Hodhodi in the early hours of 25 September that had been washed downstream by the surging waters of the Hodhodi due to heavy rains last night. Dulu Bora of Green Guard Nature Organization observed that the elephant tusks had been hacked off. As some of the local villagers were demanding to cut the trunk for meat (!), Dulu and other like minded people decided to move the body further downstream where they could mobilise people to prevent such perversion.
A priest was summoned by Green Guard Nature Organization members to perform the last rites of the pachyderm and prevent people from taking its flesh. Dulu observed that the body was still warm and it could have died only hours earlier, but the presence of maggots in the matter oozing out from the bullet wound suggest it may have been shot 2-3 days earlier, as the eggs laid in the wound had grown into maggots. The perverted few who wanted to eat the flesh were attracted by the fact that it was still warm and fresh but luckily there others who vehemently opposed their designs.
An excavator arrived along with the forest department to remove the elephant for cremation.When the head was turned, the bullet hole was easily visible.A part of the other tusk was still present and forest personnel decided to cut it off to prevent desecration of the burial area. Using chains and logs, villagers, forest staff and Green Guard Nature Organization members move the body to a truck.
Dulu Bora and Green Guard Nature Organization members and a group of school children accompanied the last journey. It was buried at a place at Borghat near Chapanala.
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