GUWAHATI, Dec 16 – ‘Laden’, the ‘rogue’ elephant that had been terrorizing villagers in Sonitpur district for four years was shot dead at the Behali Tea Estate around 7-20 am today. The conservation fraternity, however, decried the killing of ‘Laden’, saying that there was no way the rogue, if there was indeed one, could have been identified with certainty. “In all probability, the life of an innocent elephant has been taken because very little chance was there to identify the rogue elephant with conviction,” an activist said.
Laden, who had a death warrant on him since 2003 after he trampled five persons, was equally deft at eluding the hunters as he was in marauding villages and killing people. As per State Forest Department records, the elephant killed a total of 13 people in 2003, 2004 and 2006.
“Hunter Dwipen Ram Phukan shot the elephant after a prolonged search with local villagers who helped in locating and identified Laden. His footprints also confirmed him to be the wanted one,” Chandan Bora, DFO, Sonitpur East Division, told The Assam Tribune.
Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Mohan Chandra Malakar said that he had ordered the elephant to be shot in 2003 after it killed five persons. “It again killed four persons in 2004 and another four this year. Even though the permission to shoot it had been issued almost three years back, the elephant always managed to give the hunters the slip every time an effort was made to locate it,” he said.
The elephant, a mokhona aged between 45-50 years and about ten feet in height, earned the nickname Laden for its exploits of terror and mayhem in villages. The terrified villagers, who often bore the brunt of the rogue’s depredations, named him Laden after it continued to wreak havoc over a big area for years.
The main incident that prompted the hunting of Laden happened on the night of November 19, 2006 at Borbhogia village near Jamugurihat, when one out of a herd of about nine elephants attacked a family and killed all the four members. Conservationists said the questions that naturally arise in identifying the rogue would relate to any unique identification mark, sex, and height, and also whether it was possible to see the marks amidst the mayhem in the darkness. Then there was every possibility of the herd being replaced by another, as elephants do not stay for long at the same time. “Killing of elephants is not the solution and the real remedy lies in adopting long-term measures like foolproof protection to the existing forests besides restoring some of the lost elephant habitat and corridors,” they said.
Since 2001 till August 2006, as many as 239 people have been killed by elephants in the State, while 265 elephants have died (most of the casualties relate to poisoning, electrocution, accident, poaching, etc.) in the same period
