An adult male elephant was found dead near the Kalimati-Joda road under the Bamebari police station in Keonjhar district on Thursday morning.
After locals informed the forest and police personnel about the incident, the concerned department officials reached the spot. A fatal injury was noticed in the elephant’s stomach, which was bleeding. It was difficult for the officials to ascertain whether the elephant was hit by any passing heavy vehicle or whether it was attacked by any sharp weapon.
A postmortem was conducted by local veterinary doctors and the real fact of the elephant’s death may come to light after the Postmortem report is available.
Incidents of elephant depredation are on the rise these days when paddy crop is ripe on the fields. Herds of elephants are entering paddy fields near villages, for which the man-elephant conflict is growing, and this incident could also be the result of retaliation by affected villagers to save their crop and habitation.
