An elephant calf was found dead in Chilla range of Rajaji tiger reserve by forest department staff on patrol. Prima facie, the foresters are calling it a natural death. Some infection may have caused the death of the male calf since no external wounds were found on his body.
Chilla wildlife warden Ajay Sharma said, “We were informed by out patrol team about the carcass in Chilla. It seems to be natural death since no external injury marks were found on the two day old body.”
Veterinarian Dr Aditi Sharma said, “Since over 40 hours have passed since the calf’s death, its organs had started shrinking. Because of summers, body decays fast and autolysis (cell/tissue destruction) had started.
There was no external injury mark though we found blisters filled with fluid. The swab has been taken and after the bacterio-fluid culture report, exact reason may be known of its death if it was due to some body infection.”
Notably this is the third elephant death within a month in the Chilla range of Rajaji.