Odisha: Fire torches thrown to drive away elephant herd; DFO orders probe after video goes viral

Karanjia: In a bizarre incident, fire torches were thrown to drive away an elephant herd. Allegedly, this took place in a large farmland under Karanjia forest division of Mayurbhanj, a video of which went viral on social media platforms today. It is said that the persons in the video are forest personnel.

Following this, Karanjia divisional forest officer (DFO) ordered a probe into the incident. However, the DFO refuted the charge that persons who hurled fire torches were employees of the department.

“We think that the incident did not take place in our area. It is difficult to ascertain the place of occurrence from the video. A probe is underway to find out the truth behind the viral video. A large farmland is seen where the incident has occurred, which we have not found out in Karanjia yet. We are questioning the persons who have posted the video and if anyone would be found guilty will certainly be arrested. Elephants seen in the video could be from Jharkhand or West Bengal,” the DFO said.

“Our men never use fire torches to drive away the elephants. Rather, people have been making fire torches in each and every village these days,” the senior forest official asserted.