Poachers Kill Elephant in India
Animal Argonaut
Poachers Kill Elephant in India
LUCKNOW (AP) - Ivory poachers killed an elephant in an Indian wildlife
reserve but were driven off by furious villagers and forest guards
before they could remove the elephant's tusks, officials said Monday.
The carcass of the poisoned elephant was found Sunday in Corbett
National Park, home to nearly 600 elephants - 100 of them with tusks,
said Puran Chandra Joshi, field director of the park.
Angry villagers and forest guards drove off the poachers, Joshi said.
The elephant was the second killed by poachers in a week in the park in
the Himalayan foothills. On Friday, the mutilated body of an elephant
with its tusks removed was discovered in the park.
Established in 1936 as India's first national park, the wildlife
reserve 160 miles northeast of New Delhi is named after author and
conservationist Jim Corbett.
As ivory prices soar in the international market, poachers are preying
on lone and aging elephants in the reserve's dense forests, Joshi said.
Since the use of guns attracts attention, poachers have turned to
poison to kill the animals.
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