Elephant found dead in Chhattisgarh's Balod district

A three-year-old male elephant calf was found dead in a field in Chhattisgarh's Balod district on Monday, forest department officials said.

It is suspected the wild animal died due to natural causes, but the exact reason will be known only after a postmortem report is available, they said.

The carcass of the calf was found in a field near Kokan Paddetola village under the Dallirajhara forest range, an official said.

The animal had got separated from its herd a few days back and was found in a weak condition in a field in Salhai Tola village of the area on September 11 following which he was treated by veterinarians of the forest department, he said.

After the treatment, the elephant had moved inside the forest and since then the animal's movement was being monitored by forest department staffers.

On Monday morning, the three-year-old calf was spotted in the same field where he was later found dead, the official said.

No external injuries were found on the carcass, he said.

With this fatality, seven elephants have been found dead in different districts of the state so far this year due to various reasons, including electrocution, officials said.

As per government records, 204 people had been killed in elephant attacks, while 45 jumbos have died in the state in the last three years - from 2018 to 2020.

According to the officials, movement of at least 307 elephants in 16 herds was recently reported from different parts of the state, especially Surajpur, Raigarh, Mahasamund, Korba, Balrampur, Jashpur, Gariaband and Balod districts, where several incidents of human-elephant conflicts have been witnessed in the recent past. PTI COR TKP RSY RSY