Bhanjanagar: A female elephant was found dead in a roadside forest near Narayanprasad under the Tarasingh forest range of the Ghumusar North forest division in Ganjam district Saturday night.
Forest personnel reached the spot Sunday morning and launched an investigation. The elephant is estimated to be around five years old.
After a Joint Task Force (JTF) team arrived from Bhubaneswar, a post-mortem was conducted in the presence of wildlife experts, representatives of the voluntary organisation SNEHA, officials from Tata Power, and local panchayat representatives.
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Officials suspect the elephant may have died four to five days earlier.
Divisional Forest Officer Himanshu Sekhar Mohanty said the exact cause of death will be known after the post-mortem report is received.
Samples from different parts of the elephant’s body have been sent to OUAT in Bhubaneswar for further examination.
The remaining parts of the carcass were buried at the site. JTF SP Batakrushna Mishra, DFO Mohanty, ACFs Bibek Das, Bimal Prasad Pradhan, Mujagada forest ranger Bimbadhar Sahu, Tarasingh forest ranger Prashant Kumar Behera, wildlife enthusiast Ramesh Kumar Patra, SNEHA member Prashant Rout and a Tata Power SDO were present during the process.
The RCCF of Berhampur also visited the Tarasingh forest range and held discussions with departmental officials at the local Dak Bungalow regarding the elephant’s death.