SOS to OUAT vets to treat injured jumbo

Bhubaneswar: As adult elephant is battling for life in Sambalpur forest division after it got wounded due to some unknown reason and has developed septicaemia.
The elephant is stranded in a pond where, experts believe, it had entered to cool itself as its body temperature had gone up owing to the injury. Pus is flowing out of the wound in one of its legs and forest officials have now sent an SOS to the veterinary doctors at the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar, to treat it.
“We are yet to know the reason behind the wound. But it is definitely not a bullet wound as we had used a metal detector. Had a bullet been stuck inside, it would have been detected,” divisional forest officer (Sambalpur) Viswanath Neelannavar said.
The senior forest officer added that on June 2 the elephant’s wound was discovered and it was tranquilised. It was given antibiotics to treat its wound. But it hasn’t helped, resulting in the authorities seeking help from veterinary doctors at OUAT.
Meanwhile, there is report of another elephant found limping in Sambalpur forest division. Forest department staff suspect it may have hurt its leg.
“The veterinary doctors we have requested OUAT to send will also treat the other elephant. But its condition is not as bad as the other one,” Neelannavar said.