Touch of ivory for Officers’ Mess

Apr 09, 2012 |

Amit S. Upadhye

Tags:

ivory

Elephant tusks that are in the possession of the State government will now decorate Officers’ Mess and military buildings across the country. Already 12 pairs of tusks from the state have been sent to different military establishments and more are waiting to be procured. The Forest Department will give the tusks to the military on several terms and conditions including that their ownership will remain with the state government and credit must also be given to the state Forest department at the display. The offices of Army and Air Force chiefs in New Delhi have already received two pairs of tusks from the state.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Mr B.K. Singh said that there had been a proposal for burning down the entire wildlife produce available with the state to send out a strong message to poachers. “But it was decided to use the wealth for educational purposes. Hence the decision was taken to allow the tusks for display in military establishments. In future tusks from the state will also be seen at educational institutions. Already a few Indian Institute of Managements have approached us asking for tusks. A decision on this will be taken soon,” Mr Singh explained.

The state has tonnes of elephant tusks which were either seized from poachers or removed from dead tuskers in jungles. Karnataka has one of the highest elephant populations in the country along with Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. But unlike other parts of the country where the animals mainly face threat from poaching, in Karnataka they are often killed by electrocution. “Elephants in the state are under pressure from poaching and conflicts with humans. The display of tusks could narrate the tale why these magnificent animals are hunted down. This will create awareness and provide inspiration to fight to save the mammal before it becomes goes extinct,” said elephant expert Ms Suparna Ganguly.

\However, a section of conservationists feel that the move of the Forest department could trigger more demand for wildlife products in the open market. “We must send a strong signal to poachers by burning wildlife products including ivory. Any wildlife product on display will create demand and everyone will want to own these products,” protested a wildlife expert.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/141299" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-72b9bdded69c5f1657201d80ae99b24e" value="form-72b9bdded69c5f1657201d80ae99b24e" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="87659696" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>