A young ailing elephant, which was spotted in the Balikiari reserve forest under Narsinghpur (West) Range two weeks ago, died on Sunday due to lack of proper treatment.
On the request of Athagarh DFO Sasmita Lenka, a team of veterinary doctors from the OUAT and a team of elephant experts from Nandankanan had on January 11 rushed to the spot and diagnosed that the pachyderm was suffering from indigestion. After giving it first aid treatment, they left the pachyderm in jungle. However, the elephant was found dead on Sunday due to severe ailment in compartment number 10 of Narsinghpur (West) Range.
ACF Purna Chandra Guru, Range Officer Bijaya Kumar Mohanty, Veterinary Doctor Bijaya Kumar Senapati rushed to the spot, conducted an autopsy and buried the body there.
Meanwhile, environmentalists expressed concern over death of increasing numbers of pachyderms and lamented that no action is being taken against forest officials even as elephants are dying due to their negligence. While poachers are killing elephants due to lack of guidance of forest officials, ailing elephants are dying unattended by them, alleged many.