Cuttack: Poaching killed approximately 1,269 elephants in the past 26 years in Odisha, revealed a Wildlife Society of Odisha survey. Most of the casualties were reported from Mayurbhanj district.

The survey was conducted on the basis of elephant deaths recorded by the state forest department. The figures indicated that the death rates had increased over the past decades.

While 33 elephants had died on an average every year from 1990 to 2000, the number increased to 73 from 2010 to 2016.

"Most of these are poaching deaths though the department conceals many cases claiming 'unknown cause' or 'disease' as reasons," Wildlife Society of Odisha secretary Biswajit Mohanty said.

According to the survey, 76 elephant deaths were reported in Mayurbhanj between 2011 and 2017, the highest for any district in Odisha.

The analysis of death records has shown that the district has been leading in elephant mortality in three of the last six years.

"A spree of elephant poaching by poisoning had occurred at Simlipal Tiger Reserve in early 2010, which had lead to the discovery of more than 12 dead elephants by an inquiry team of National Tiger Conservation Authority," Mohanty said.

"From April 1, 2015 to June 12, 2016, forest officials found 39 decomposed bodies of elephants in Odisha. There was no clue available to trace the offenders and none of these cases were registered as poaching," he said.

The Wildlife Society of Odisha survey also revealed that in most cases of elephant poaching and seizure of ivory, the culprits continued to poach elephants as they easily got bail and the department had failed to convict them.

In 1991, Ganesh Chandra Jew was caught red-handed in Baripada, Similipal, with ivory inside a suitcase but the case dragged on for more than two decades and ultimately Jew died before being convicted. Elephant poachers Izza Khan and Babula Khan of Narsighpur forest range were arrested more than once but the department failed to convict them due to weak charge-sheets.

In November 2017, two men were arrested with ivory in the Kantamal range of Boudh division and after several weeks, the skeletal remains of an adult male elephant was found in the same range. The department officials could not link the two cases and hence the two accused are out on bail today, the survey indicated.

The 2017 elephant census report released by the state forest department had indicated that elephant population had increased marginally to 1,976 from the 1,954 recorded in 2015.