Conservationists have raised concerns over the unchecked poaching of wild elephants in the eastern Tarai districts. They suspect that an organised racket and smugglers might be behind these crimes.

On Thursday, a wild elephant was found dead in the Bahuban area in ward 3 of Mechinagar Municipality in Jhapa. The elephant was lying dead near the Dhardhare stream with deep injuries around its neck. A postmortem carried out by veterinarians and technicians from the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve confirmed that the elephant died of gunshot injuries. The slain elephant was a male of around 10 years of age.

“Fifteen musket shrapnels were found in the elephant’s body during the postmortem. The tusker died of gunshot injuries,” said Bed Prakash Bhandari, Jhapa chairman of the Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal.

On April 16, another wild elephant was found dead in Kalika Community Forest situated in ward 13 of Mechinagar Municipality. Both tusks of the 45-year-old male elephant were missing. The postmortem report had confirmed that poachers killed the tusker by using a musket. The poachers made off with the tusks, tail and hooves of the elephant.

Conservationists suspect that a group of trans-border poachers and smugglers is involved in the unchecked poaching of wild elephants in the area.

“The frequent poaching and death of wild elephants are quite alarming. An organised group of poachers and smugglers might have been involved in these crimes. The tusks, tails and other body parts are taken away from almost all the killed elephants,” said conservationist Shankar Luitel. He expressed his concerns about the increasing use of guns in poaching wild elephants.

On January 1, the poachers killed a wild elephant in Janajagaran Community Forest in ward 10 of Sundar Haraincha Municipality in Morang district. According to Lal Bahadur Majhi, officer at the Division Forest Office in Salakpur in the district, the dead elephant had sustained two gunshot injuries. It was suspected that the smugglers killed the animal as its tail was chopped off. Besides tusks, the hairs on an elephant’s tail fetch a high price on the black market. The tail hair is used alongside gold to make bracelets and other ornaments.

The nature of poaching in Mechinagar and Sundar Haraincha is almost the same. The assailants, however, could not take away the tusks and tail of the elephant killed on Thursday.

The human-elephant conflict is a longstanding problem in the eastern Tarai districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari. Bahundangi in Jhapa is one of Nepal’s hardest-hit settlements by human-animal conflict. In the past 10 years, wild elephants have killed more than 50 people and destroyed properties worth millions of rupees.

According to conservationists, Bahundangi and its surrounding areas serve as a corridor for elephant movement. Studies show that elephants from Assam and West Bengal in India migrate to Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in Nepal through Bahundangi. Experts say that instances of human-wildlife conflict are recurring because of the human encroachment on the bio-corridor over the years.

Many elephants were killed in the area by electric traps. But there have been recent reports of poaching using guns and muskets.

According to the Division Forest Office in Jhapa, four elephants were killed in Jhapa and two others were poached in Morang over the past three months. Three of them were electrocuted while as many others were poached by using guns and muskets.

“The elephants were mainly killed by using electric traps in the past. But the incidents of using muskets to poach the pachyderms have been on the rise lately,” said Anjana Puri, officer at the forest office.

As per the data from the Division Forest Office in Jhapa, a total of 21 wild elephants have been killed over the past two decades in Jhapa alone. Among them, only one was a female elephant.

The local people in the area install electric fencing to protect their homes and crops from wild elephants. Most of the elephants were killed by these electric traps. Conservationists claim that the authorities concerned seem reluctant to take strong action against the ongoing poaching of the wild tuskers.

“The poachers feel encouraged because the authorities do not take strong action against the poaching of wild elephants. The authorities should take stringent initiative to control the ongoing poaching of wild elephants,” said a conservationist preferring anonymity.