Chief District Officer of Chitwan Himnath Dawadi told Republica that the meeting decided to kill Dhrube in accordance with Local Administration Act-2028 BS. “Dhrube will be killed whenever he is found,” said Dawadi. According to him, the Nanda Baks Battalion of the Nepal Army, which has been deployed in Chitwan National Park (CNP), has been instructed to haunt down Dhrube, who has killed at least four people in and around Chitwan recently.[break]
Under pressure from the locals, who were apparently enraged by the killings of Buddhiram Bote and his wife Jariya Bote at the hands of Dhrube on Saturday night, an all-party meeting had to take an official decision to kill the tusker. Previously, after Dhrube killed two people within a short period of time, the meeting had decided to fit a radio tracking device on him. The meeting had also decided to kill Dhrube if his activities confirmed madness. However, CNP officials had failed to properly monitor Dhrube even after fitting a radio device on him.
“We could not track Dhrube for many days even after fitting a radio device,” said Bishnu Thapaliya, a ranger at CNP. “All of a sudden, Dhrube appeared on our computer screen on Saturday. However, he soon became untraceable. We feared that he might have entered into some human settlement. Later, we learnt that Dhrube killed two people in the Madi area.”
Elephants, including Dhrube, have killed around 15 people in Chitwan, Bara and Parsa within this year.
Dhrube kills two more persons
RAMESH KUMAR POUDEL
CHITWAN, Dec 16 : The killer tusker yet again claimed the lives of a married couple in Madi area of Chitwan on Saturday evening.
According to CNP, the two trampled to death have been identified as Buddhiram Bote,60, and his wife Jariya Bote of Droupadinagar-9 in Gardi VDC. Protesting the deaths caused by tusker attacks, locals had shut down Madi area on Sunday.
“CNP´s technical team and army officers were made to stay on alert in the village after locals informed about confronting Dhrube around 9 in the evening. But despite the security arrangement, the tusker barged into Buddhiram´s house in mid night and killed him and his wife”" said Yam Kanta Bhusal, Chief of Panchpandav Buffer Zone User Committee.
A CNP search team had tracked down Dhrube on November 18. After tranquillizing the tusker, the team had cut off one of his tusks and had fixed a radio tracking device on its body.
"Even sedatives were injected but regardless of our efforts, the tusker killed two more people," said Jhamak Bahadur Karki, chief conservation officer of CNP.
In the past two weeks, the tusker has killed a total of four people in Madi area of the district.
"We are now planning to lock up the wild tuskers permanently rather than letting them free," said Karki.
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