Elephant safari stalled at Jaldapara National Park

Kolkata: In the wake of the deaths of five rhinoceros within a span of four days the state Forest department has decided to suspend elephant safari at the Jaldapara National Park for four days to smoothly conduct the vaccination of the animals inhabiting the forest.

The safari has been stalled till Wednesday and will resume after reviewing the situation.

"As a precautionary measure, we have started vaccination of all the rhinoceros that inhabit the forest as per the advice of the state Animal Resources Development (ARD) department. The vaccination of the elephants of our department that is responsible for guarding the forest and are also used in safari is going on in full swing. We want to conduct the entire process smoothly so we have temporarily stopped elephant safari at Jaldapara," said Rajib Banerjee, state Forest minister.

Meanwhile, the forest officials have sent the blood and tissue samples collected from the carcasses of the dead rhinos to the laboratory of the ARD department for tests. "Preliminary reports have indicated that the deaths were not due to anthrax," Banerjee added.

The department has already isolated the Sisamara beat area of the national park from where the deaths were reported. The Forest department has taken measures to prevent any animals from encroaching in the area. "We have informed the Wildlife Institute of India so that they can send their experts and provide necessary advice in this regard," a senior official of the department said.

The total count of rhinoceros at Jaldapara National Park as per report released in June 2019, was 239. There are other herbivores like gaur, sambar, deer and elephant inhabiting the national park that is spread over an area of 216.51 square kilometres.

In 1994, a number of herbivores, including rhinos, had died from anthrax in Jaldapara.

Anthrax is primarily a disease of herbivores. Humans almost invariably contract the natural disease directly or indirectly from animals or animal products. It is caused by the bacterium Bacillus Anthracis.