National Tiger Conservation Authority director Rajesh Gopal confirmed that he has asked the Centre for a special deployment of about 100 CRPF personnel to help comb the forests of the Simlipal National Park tiger reserve.
A report by a fact-finding team sent by the NTCA to Simlipal to investigate the death of elephants confirmed that the carcasses of seven dead elephants that were found in Simlipal in April and May 2010 had already been burnt and destroyed, in some cases illegally by department personnel.
“There was a concerted effort to destroy the remains of at least two of the elephant carcasses, and perhaps more, which amounts to destruction of evidence without registering a case,” the team said in its report, adding, “Unless accountability is fixed for this, the situation in Simlipal can never improve. We recommend that the state government take strong action as per service rules against these field staff.”