Elephant carcass found in Jharkhand forest

Chaibasa (Jharkhand), Nov 25 (PTI) The carcass of a male elephant, with no external injury marks and tusks intact, was found in a forest in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand on Tuesday, officials said.

The carcass of the 'sub-adult' elephant, aged 15-20 years, was found in Sosopi forest in Chaibasa Forest Division.

"This was the third instance of an elephant carcass being found in Chaibasa Forest Division without any external injury marks in less than a fortnight.

"This is a mystery for us... We are waiting for viscera reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Ranchi of the two female elephants that were found dead under mysterious circumstances on November 15," Kolhan Division's Regional Chief Conservator of Forest (RCCF), Smita Pankaj, told PTI.

The senior forest officer said they were contemplating sending the viscera of the male elephant to two centres.

"We have come to know that the FSL has a huge workload, because of which it is taking time to issue the previous viscera reports. This time, we are contemplating to send the viscera to both FSL and the veterinary unit of Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) in Ranchi. We are anxious to know the reason behind the death of elephants," Pankaj said.

Chaibasa Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Aditya Narayan told PTI that after the carcass of the male elephant was discovered, a medical team of the forest department reached the spot and conducted the post-mortem examination.

"Prima facie, it appears that the male elephant died last night. During the autopsy, some haemorrhage marks were found in the small intestine. However, there were no external injury marks and the poisoning angle is also being ruled out. As the tusks are intact, we also ruled out poaching," the forest officer said.

The body was buried at the spot, Narayan said.

On November 15, foresters had discovered decomposed carcasses of two female elephants near Juginanda village in Noamundi forest range of Chaibasa Forest Division. While one was a one-and-a-half-year-old calf, the other was a six-year-old elephant.

"Even in those carcasses, there were no external injury marks and a post-mortem examination done on the spot ruled out poisoning or poaching," Narayan said. PTI ANB ACD