Bhubaneswar, February 17 The Odisha government has issued a show-cause notice to the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Balliguda Forest Division in the Kandhamal district, asking him to explain within 15 days why disciplinary action should not be initiated against him for the killing of an elephant and an alleged attempt to cover up the incident.
The notice was served to Ghanashyam Mahanta, an officer of the Odisha Forest Service (OFS), who is posted as the Divisional Forest Officer, Balliguda Forest Division, on February 13.
Earlier, four individuals were arrested and a forest ranger placed under suspension after it was found that the elephant had been killed, its carcass cut into pieces, and buried at different locations. The incident took place in January, they added.
In the notice, the DFO was accused of negligence and dereliction of statutory duty.
"It is surprising to note that, as the divisional forest officer, you only came to know of the incident nine days after it occurred, and that too through the media," it said, adding that the DFO was required to visit the site immediately as per guidelines.
Officials claimed that Mahanta had sent assistant conservator of forest Suryakanta Behera to conduct an inquiry instead of personally visiting the site.
Even after knowing about the incident, he entrusted the inquiry to another ACF, Manoranjan Bagha, without realizing the seriousness of the offense, reflecting a casual attitude and shifting of responsibility. He also did not take any steps to ascertain the cause of death of the elephant or identify the perpetrators, the notice stated.
Although the carcass of the elephant was detected on January 5, the DFO did not submit the preliminary report to the Chief Wildlife Warden, Collector, RCCF and the government within 24 hours of detection thereby violating the guidelines, the notice said.