Pesticides suspected in elephant deaths in India
Date: 17-Sep-01
Country: INDIA
"Wild elephants are fond of country-made liquor and we suspect the villagers must have mixed it with pesticides and left it for the animals to drink," said Dr. Apurba Chakraborty, a member of the investigating team.
Growing human settlement in their habitats has forced herds of wild elephants out of jungles looking for food, trampling paddy fields, destroying houses and granaries, and angering villagers, officials said.
Indian forest guards found the dead elephants last month at Nameri national park, about 200 km (125 miles) from Guwahati, the biggest city in the northeastern state of Assam.
India's northeast is home to about half of the country's elephant population numbering around 30,000.
Government protection of elephants over the last 20 years, including a ban on their capture, had led to a rise in their population in Assam state to about 5,000, experts say.
