Two Odisha forest officials suspended for dereliction in duty

Balasore: Taking cognizance of the recent poaching of an elephant for tusks inside Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary in Balasore district, the forest authorities today suspended two forest officials for dereliction in duty.

Sources said Balasore Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Biswaraj Panda suspended Forester Kishore Chandra Bhuyan and Forest Guard Lalmohan Singh for dereliction in duty. Besides, the DFO also served a show cause notice to Assistant Conservetor of Forest (ACF) Laxman Kumar Pradhan in connection with the incident.

Worth mentioning, the carcass of an elephant with its tusks missing was found near Tenda in Kuldiha sanctuary on June 5. Later, forest officials had sent the carcass of the elephant for post-mortem.

The post-mortem later confirmed that the pachyderm was killed by some poachers, who took away the tusks after killing the animal.