Interviewtimes 
As many as 14 cases of elephant poaching were reported in Odisha in the last five years between 2018 and 2022, the State government has stated in the Orissa High Court recently.
As per the affidavit filed by the wildlife wing of the Forest department, five of these cases have been reported from the Athagarh forest division, while three cases are from the Boudh division. Besides, two cases each have been reported from Deogarh, Dhenkanal and Sambalpur, and one in the Ghumsur North division.
The cases included the death of an elephant in the Kaliapada forests of the Jayapur section in the Narasinghpur west range of Athagarh. The case is under investigation. Besides, the trial is yet to start in a number of these cases.
PCCF (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Shashi Paul, who filed the affidavit, stated that the State government has created a Special Task Force (STF) to deal with organised crime and criminals and the STF in addition to their original mandate, also investigates into the wildlife cases.
