MP forest officials suspended after 10 elephant deaths at Reserve

The Madhya Pradesh government has suspended two senior forest officials for alleged negligence after the deaths of 10 elephants at the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. Assistant Conservator of Forests Fateh Singh Ninama and Field Director Gaurav Chaudhary were removed due to lapses in leadership and oversight.

MP suspends officials after elephant deaths

The suspension order from MP Forest Department Secretary Atul Kumar Mishra states that Chaudhary, a 2010 Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, violated Rule 3 of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, by failing to return from leave despite being informed of the emergency. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden contacted him, but Chaudhary kept his mobile phone switched off, neglecting his duties, according to the report of The Indian Express.

“During the suspension, his headquarters will be the Office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Force, Bhopal,” read the order.

Ninama was suspended for failing to provide timely leadership and delegation of critical duties during the investigation. Defending his position, Ninama stated, “I am not sad about the suspension but about the elephant deaths... I oversee three zones with 70-80 villages growing kodo (millets, speculated to be the cause of the deaths). Can the staff track elephants everywhere? We don’t have the resources to track them all.”

The crisis emerged after allegations of delayed response times and lack of oversight. Ninama noted that when the elephants fell ill at night, his team was stationed elsewhere. “The elephants must have fallen sick at night. My staff was in a different beat. The farmers whose kodo millets the elephants ate were also not home. We had no information,” Ninama explained. Despite efforts to call in doctors and wildlife officials from various districts, their arrival took hours, and none of the elephants could be saved.

CM forms task force after negligence

Expressing deep concern over the incident, Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav stated, “Despite the incident, the Field Director didn’t return from leave. There was negligence in managing large herds in the area.”

To address the growing human-elephant conflict, Dr. Yadav announced a state-level elephant task force. This body aims to create “Elephant Friends” across districts to foster better coexistence between humans and elephants. Measures include installing solar-powered electric fencing to safeguard crops and involving farmers in alternative livelihoods like agroforestry.

The suspensions follow an incident last year where three other reserve employees were disciplined. Officer Shil Sindhu Shrivastava and forest guards Kamla Prasad Kol and Pushpendranath Mishra were suspended for failing to report a dead elephant and attempting to burn the carcass. The situation became public when a photograph of the burning carcass surfaced online, prompting a wildlife activist to file a complaint.

To prevent future tragedies, Madhya Pradesh officials will visit Karnataka, Kerala, and Assam—states with successful elephant conservation strategies. These visits aim to adopt sustainable practices for Bandhavgarh Reserve and other regions. The government is enhancing its “Hathi Mitra” initiative to minimize human-animal conflicts and has raised compensation for human casualties due to elephant encounters from ₹8 lakh to ₹25 lakh.

Reflecting on the tragic deaths and the need for systemic change, Chief Minister Yadav said, “It was a new experience for officials to deal with a large herd in the area, and all officers, including field directors, need to be alert.”

Preliminary investigations ruled out pesticide poisoning, but the full post-mortem report is awaited. Dr. Yadav instructed the forest department to map agricultural areas and introduce safeguards to manage elephant movements and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts.

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