Himal Press 
Makuna - the wild tusker - at Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve.
Photo: Aditya Pal
KATHMANDU: The investigation team formed to probe the fatal shooting of a wild elephant named Makuna in the Lamital area of Kumrose Buffer Zone Community Forest in Chitwan National Park (CNP) has completed its field study.
The team, led by Dr. Buddhi Sagar Paudel, a joint secretary at the Ministry of Forests and Environment, conducted the field study for three days. It held discussions with officials of the CNP Office, Nepal Army personnel, private elephant operators in Sauraha, representatives of the United Elephant Cooperative, community forest representatives, and other stakeholders.
According to officials at the CNP Office, the team returned to Kathmandu on Wednesday.
The five-member team began its work on February 9.
Purushottam Sharma, a senior monitoring and evaluation officer at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation; Lieutenant Colonel Gajendra Rawat of the Directorate of National Parks and Wildlife Reserves of the Nepal Army; Sabnam Pathak, a forest officer with the Department of Forests and Soil Conservation; and Dr. Dinesh Shah, a veterinarian at the CNP Office, were the other members of the committee.
The ministry formed the probe team following the fatal shooting of Makuna in the Lamital area of Chitwan National Park on February 5.
