Bhubaneswar, July 2: The state government today suspended four forest officials for trying to mislead the authorities about the death of an elephant in Nayagarh district's Daspalla forest division.

The three forest guards, who have been placed under suspension, are Sanatan Swain, Akshay Mallik and Prakash Chandra Pal and forester Srinibas Das. The erring officials had made an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss a clear case of poaching of a buffalo.

Acting on a tip-off, principal chief conservator of forest S.S. Srivastava directed the Nayagarh divisional forest officer to probe into the matter and submit a report within three days. The issue came to light when the enumerator engaged in the census of elephants had come across the decomposed carcass of a male elephant in Chadheiyapalli reserve forest under Daspalla range in Nayagarh district on June 25.

On June 17, local villagers spotted the tusker's decomposed body. Later, the local forest officials visited the spot. One of the villagers had even videographed the entire inspection. The ivory of the tusker was missing, rising suspicion that the poachers had killed the jumbo and taken away the ivory. But, the forest officials did not react till the enumerators revealed it to the higher-ups of the forest department.

The forest department had sent a team to the spot to get a first-hand report. But, the team did not get the required support from the local forest officials. They had tried to mislead the team by stating that the decomposed body was not of an elephant but that of a buffalo. As the body was half burnt, the expert team also failed to make a proper assessment. When the villagers got to know about it, they informed the higher-ups of the forest department and submitted the video footage of the decomposed body of the elephant.

The elephant mortality figures for the past five years have been alarming as they show 354 deaths in various parts of the state. While 51 deaths were reported in 2009-10, the number rose to 83 in 2010-11 and it was 68, 82 and 70, respectively, in the next three years.