Carcass of the tusker near Tendra village in Lahunipada block | Express
ROURKELA: The carcass of an adult tusker was found inside a forest near Tendra village in Lahunipada block of Sundargarh district on Thursday. The tusks of the male elephant, believed to be around 50 years, were found intact. While poaching has been ruled out as the reason behind the tusker’s death, sources said the pachyderm was killed due to electrocution. Forest officials were waiting for the autopsy report to ascertain the cause of death.
Divisional forest officer (DFO) of Bonai Sanath Kumar said on being informed, a team rushed to the spot and conducted investigation. Prima facie, there were no external injury marks on the carcass. Veterinary surgeons performed postmortem and the carcass was buried at the spot following the standard operating practice.
The DFO said further investigation is underway and and the autopsy report is awaited to ascertain the exact reason of death. On the other hand, sources claimed that some villagers had laid live electric wires to protect their standing crops from wild animals, especially wild boars. The elephant might have come in contact with the wire and died.
In view of growing incidents of elephant depredation in villages located on the fringes of Bonai forest division, many villagers usually lay charged electric wires to prevent the jumbos from damaging crops and houses.
