A wild rogue elephant which was tranquilised recently by the forest department has died in captivity, officials said.
"The animal was doing fine but the keepers here have reported that it died around 5.30 a.m. today (Sunday)," said a senior official of the Orang national park. The 35-year old bull (male) elephant was captured, after tranquilizing, from Rongjuli forest division in Western Assam's Goalpara district on November 11. Forest department shifted the rogue to Orang national park on November 12.
While the locals had nicknamed the rogue as Laden after the late Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, it was named as "Krishna" after he was captured.
The Assam government had already sent a team of expert veterinarians, including K.K. Sarma to carry out a postmortem on the dead elephant to ascertain the cause of its death.
A team led by BJP legislator from Sootea constituency, Padma Hazarika, tranquilised the rogue elephant. There were forest officials and veterinarians in the team who assisted in tranquilising the elephant.