A team of five doctors from the OUAT Bhubaneswar, which conducted the post mortem of the three dead elephants in the Pravasuni forest of Deogarh district, nearly 18 km from the district headquarters, concluded that the elephants died due to lightning.
But, common people are not in a mood to buy the story. “There is no symptom of lightning at the spot. When three elephants died, how a single grass or small plant didn’t burn at the spot,” asked the public. Even, mediapersons and animal lovers who visited the spot also had a similar take.
But Deogarh DFO BBK Biswasi said, “The death of the elephants is due to lightening as confirmed by the OUAT doctors’ team.” He said that the reason behind the death of the first elephant found a week before was also under investigation. “Samples have been sent for higher investigation and ascertain the real reason,” the DFO added.
It is further learnt that a review meeting with RCCF from Rourkela lingaraj Otta was going on in Deogarh forest division office. But most of the officers were tightlipped on the matter.
Further the common people opined that the particular elephant herd had eight elephants in total with a tusker and four are already dead. Hence, further care is needed for the rest four, if really they are suffering either from anthrax or some other dreaded disease.