Guwahati: A female elephant was killed in a fire exchange between forest personnel and was suspected of timber smugglers from Arunachal Pradesh in Patkai Dehing National Park, officials said on Thursday.
Acting on the tip-off, Legal Forest Personnel and Kathalguri Beats at the Jeypore Range of Dibrugarh Forest Division in Assam came out on night patrolling in the park area of Basabnala, they said.
During patrolling, they saw a group of wood smugglers who were busy with illegal tree logging.
At attention to forest personnel, smugglers open fire.
Bukat Bakat took place and after some time, smugglers managed to escape the cover of darkness, officials said.
Patrol staff visited the place the next day, Tuesday, and detected a wreck of a female elephant, around 18 years old, they said.
The team also detects nine tree stumps and 35 logs in the area.
“Direct evidence is the pointer to the fact that the elephant was used to drag the log by the criminals,” said a forest official.
From the evidence gathered, it was more certain that smugglers entered the park from the Pradesh Arunachal side, he said.
Post-Mortem found the elephant had three bullet injuries, he added.
Investigation was ongoing and the effort continued to peel the people behind the incident, the official said.
The case has been registered at the Jeypore police station under various parts of the wildlife protection law, he said.
The rainforest that was beaten by Patkai, spread over the Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, notified as the seventh national park in June this year.
Caught in a shootout between smugglers and guards, elephants were killed in Assam Forest
