Bhopal:�Standing ‘kodo’ (millet) crops were on Saturday destroyed in some areas in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) under Umaria district in Madhya Pradesh where ten elephants died over 72 hours allegedly after consuming the coarse grains, official sources said.
The move comes in the wake of the preliminary findings in the autopsy of the dead elephants suggesting that excess consumption of the millet crop may have generated toxic cyclopiazonic acid leading to death of the ten pachyderms in BTR.
However, the exact cause of death could be ascertained in the forensic tests of viscera of the dead elephants, official sources said.
Interestingly, the forest department had earlier planned to distribute ‘kodo’ seeds to the farmers in the forest villages in BTR to promote millet cultivation.
“A decision to distribute ‘kodo’ seed to the farmers in the forest villages was taken at a meeting of the forest department earlier”, deputy ranger of BTR C S Marco told the media.
The forest officer said that he had never heard of wild animals dying due to consumption of ‘kodo’ crops.
“We consume ‘kodo’ grain”, he said.
Samples of viscera of the dead elephants were sent to the school of wildlife forensic and health (SWFH) in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh for forensic tests.
Meanwhile, chief minister Mohan Yadav called an emergency high level official meeting here on Friday night to review the situation.
He was briefed on the incident by senior forest officers, sources said.
In another development, two people were on Saturday trampled to death by a herd of three elephants in the forested village of Debra, nearly four km from Salkhania village in BTR where ten elephants died over three days recently.
The deceased were identified as Gaya Ratan Yadav (62) and Bhairav Kal (35).
Another person was also injured in the incident.
Additional chief secretary (ACS) Ashok Barnwal and Principal chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Aseem Srivastav visited the spot after the incident and ordered immediate release of compensation to the next kin of the deceased people.