A carcass of a six-month-old female elephant calf was found floating in a jungle pond in the Haladiaseni Reserve Forest under the Badamba Range on Tuesday.
Getting tips from the nearby villagers, forest officials including Athagarh ACF Rajendra Das, Badamba Range Officer Gobinda Chandra Ratha and Badamba veterinary surgeon Dr Nihar Ranjan Dash fished out the calf’s body and made an autopsy.
After a preliminary probe, it was said that the calf might have drowned in deep water during a water play by a herd of elephants. However after the final report of the postmortem, the cause of the death can be ascertained, said ACF Rajendra Das.