Rituraj Phukan of the Nagaon-based Green Guards Organisation told Mail Today, ‘While historically, jumbo flesh isn’t eaten by tribes of Karbi Hills, we were surprised by the May 1 incident and similar ones in the past 10 years.

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India only has about 30,000 elephants left in its forests and reserves, and the huge animal enjoys the highest Schedule 1 species status under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972 besides declared endangered by global body, IUCN.

“We acknowledge that there are no perfect answers, and that this is a very complex and difficult decision, but this position (to postpone the Games) at least provides our athletes with the comfort of knowing that they will have adequate time to properly prepare themselves physically, mentally and emotionally to be able to participate in a safe and successful Olympic Games,” he wrote.

Tilottama Verma, chief of the WCCB, which functions under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, said, ‘As kuth is now cultivated in a very small area in Himachal, but its demand in ayurveda, the Chinese and Tibetan systems of medicine, is increasing, it is being trafficked across countries.

Senior wildlife officers refused to confirm that the May 1 Nagaon incident points to ‘meat consumption,’ but other experts expressed fears that the ‘newly acquired taste’ could lead to a spurt in elephant poaching.

Among the 17 articles laid out in the document are an athlete’s right to freedom of opinion and expression, the ability to organise and bargain collectively and to have a work place free of discrimination.

The Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA) and the World Players Association (WPA) said a “deep review and broader consultation” with athletes was required regarding the decision over whether the Games could run as planned.

“I find it somewhat ironic when it comes to the issues of clean sport that there is almost an automatic leap to issues of doping and athlete cheating and virtually no discussion about the corruption that has clearly infected sports bodies, sports leagues and sports owners,” said Smith.

Officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), western region, identified the plant as the rare ‘Saussurea costus’, or ‘kuth’, which grows only at high altitudes of 8,000-12,000 feet in very cold climate.

Dec 14 (Reuters) – The world’s leading players’ associations unveiled a universal declaration of player rights on Thursday designed to give athletes a global voice and protect them from the fallout from corruption and a broken anti-doping system.

‘We sent it to the Central National Herbarium in Howrah, West Bengal, and later National Botanical Research Institute in Lucknow, for testing and they confirmed our suspicions that it is kuth,’ Maranko said.

Brendan Schwab, executive director of the WPA, likened the institutional and state-mandated doping uncovered in Russia by the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Olympic Committee investigations to something close to “subjecting athletes to scientific experimentation in pursuit of sporting success”.

The WPA believes that athletes’ rights to a fair trial have often been trampled on in the name of clean sport and a new anti-doping system needs to be developed to protect players rather than victimise them.

“This has occurred under the eyes of an international governance system that imposed a very strict and rigid framework which we believe does not respect the fundamental rights of athletes, in terms of the presumption of innocence, in terms of rights for a fair trial, in terms of just and proportionate penalties,” said Schwab during a conference call from Washington D.C.

The World Players Association (WPA), whose member unions include FIFPro, NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB and which represents more than 85,000 athletes from 60 countries, hailed the declaration as the first comprehensive articulation of athletes´ rights.

“Given the highly unresolved situation in Norway and in large parts of the world, it is neither justifiable or desirable to send Norwegian athletes to the Olympics or Paralympics in Tokyo until the world community has put this pandemic behind them,” sports president Berit Kjøll said.

DeMaurice Smith, the director of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), said if sport was truly to rid itself of drugs, anti-doping crusaders needed to look beyond the athlete and what was taking place on the field of play.

March 21 (Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should review plans to go ahead with the Tokyo Olympics during the coronavirus pandemic and ensure dialog with athletes, the Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA) and the World Players Association (WPA) said on Saturday.

“The IOC needs to elevate its dialogue with the full range of those most affected beyond sponsors and governments to an open multi-stakeholder process that brings to the table as equals player associations as the representatives of athletes and others most at risk,” WPA executive director Brendan Schwab said in a statement.