New Delhi: Corbett National Park has reopened, tourists are going in again, and a calm of sorts prevails. Underneath the calm, tension among Park managers is palpable, because expert tribals believed to be from North Eastern India and adept at this method of killing, may not have vanished.
One theory is that they carry out their killings on full moon nights, when stealth at night becomes possible. The next full moon is due on March 9.
The projectile used in the killing is shaped like a screwdriver with serrations on the body, which is embedded in a wooden stock wrapped in string. This is used to make the projectile gas-tight and suitable for firing from a muzzle loading gun using black powder. A poison was certainly used, but tests have not yet determined what it is.
Potassium cyanide and M-99 have been ruled out. Aconite is a possibility, but has not yet been confirmed. A study of six poaching cases in North Bengal’s Cooch Behar Forest Division shows that the same method of killing was used. It is also used in Orissa.
Tribals from North Eastern India could not have operate in Corbett Park with impunity for five weeks or more, unless they had good local support. At least three pairs of tusks were taken away. The manner in which they were removed has the hallmarks of an expert, because cutting the trunk and the entire face for the removal requires a specialised technique.
Villagers living in and around the Park, if they come across the carcass of an elephant and feel tempted to remove the tusks, usually hack the ivory away with axes in a crude manner. The current wave of poaching in Corbett Park has another parallel with the North Bengal cases– the molars were removed from the jaw.
The key question, then, is: where did the local support come from? This question still remains unanswered. With no success yet in tracing the culprits, the Uttaranchal State Government has handed over the case to India’s crack investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
