A jumbo crisis in Madhya Pradesh
It was business as usual at the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Madhya Pradesh on the morning of October 29. All the officers were headed to the BTR headquarters at Umaria for a review meeting. Some had already gone home for Diwali, while some were to leave in the next two days.Arpit Mairal, the forest range officer of Pataur range, was running late for the meeting. On his way, at around 11 a.m., he got a call from the beat guard of Salkhaniya village, who told him that a herd of 13 wild elephants was behaving strangely.
“The guards and the beat officer had spotted the elephants some 200 metres away. They told me that four of them were lying on the ground and not moving, while some were sitting or standing in unusual positions,” says Mairal. Elephants do not usually lie down or sit ...