NGT takes suo motu cognisance of pregnant elephant's death in Kerala's Palakkad, forms committee to probe the matter

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Sunday (June 7) took suo motu cognisance of the death of a pregnant wild elephant in Kerala's Palakkad district and formed a committee to probe the matter. The NGT has directed the committee to submit an action-taken report in the incident.

The elephant died in the Velliyar River on May 27 after eating a pineapple filled with crackers. After postmortem it was revealed that the elephant was pregnant.
According to NGT, the death of the pregnant elephant has agitated people across the country.

"Probably these things are happening due to various aspects of not following the norms for protecting the wild animals in the forest exposing them to have a conflict with human, thereby their lives were put to danger," the NGT said.

A bench comprising Justice K Ramakrishnan and Saibal Dasgupta also issued notice to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Kerala government and Centre and sought replies from them in this matter before July 10.

"In order to ascertain the real state of affairs and also the steps to be taken to protect the wildlife and minimize the man-animal conflict in future, we feel it appropriate to appoint a joint committee," the bench said.

The bench added that the committee will go into the question and submit a factual and action-taken report, including the long term management plan to avoid such incidences in future.

"It is also seen from the newspaper that some action has been taken by the Forest department and also from government level, including the central government," the bench said.

"But this case has been registered for the purpose of taking an effort to avoid such things in future and also for providing some long term strategy to minimise man-animal conflict in wild life area or fringe village adjoining the forest area," it added.

The bench will next hear the matter on July 10.