A forest guard and a forester were suspended on Saturday after recovery of a body of a tusker without its tusks in Solo forest range in Bonei forest division on Friday.
They have been identified as Manoranjan Mohanty (forest guard) and Pratap Kishore Sahu (forester).
With tusks missing, the elephant is suspected to have become a victim of poaching by tusk mafias, who are believed to have taken out the tusk after killing the elephant. Bonei forest officials have formed a separate team to trace out the killers of the elephant.
Sources said locals had noticed the carcass of the elephant on the Kunjar forest area under Solo forest range and had informed the forest officials on Friday evening. That area being a dense forest area, a team of senior forest officials including Regional Chief Conservator of Forest lingaraj Otta, DFO Bonei Kartik Kumar Samantray and Assistant Conservator of Forest JP Singh had reached the spot and started an investigation in to the matter.
A team of veterinary officials also reached the spot. Sources said, the head and trunk of the elephant had been chopped off which is suspected to be the act of mafias to take out the tusks from the body.
The veterinary team had conducted post mortem of the deceased elephant, before its burial on the spot.
The elephant is suspected to have died a couple of days back.
“The deceased tusker was about 20-25 years old and therefore must have small size tusks,” said RCCF Otta. “A case has been registered and an investigation is on, Otta informed.
According to forest official sources, another tusker was killed under Bonei forest division in similar manner, during 2011 where in at least five persons were arrested but were later released on bail.
Sources said, a group of inter-State tusk mafias has reportedly become active in neighbouring Jharkhand and Chatishgarh and Odisha border areas and has been targeting the tuskers mainly in remote dense and inaccessible forest areas.