Burha Pahar region, the Maoists citadel, which falls in south division of Palamu Tiger Reserve in Jharkhand as this Burha Pahar goes up to Chhatisgarh, saw a male elephant calf lying dead near Jeriya water stream in the Bareysarn range of forests on Sunday October 7.
The elephant male calf neither went under postmortem nor buried at the site Jeria water stream, a common practice that all dead wildlife will get their postmortem and buried at the same place where found dead.
But in this case the corpse of this elephant calf was taken down near the sambhar soft release centre from the Jeriya water stream and the dead calf was carried on shoulders of forest guards and tiger trackers who traversed 8 kms of rough terrain for shifting of the body. The PTR personnel waded through the waters of the Burha river with this dead body of the calf which weighed more than 60 Kgs.
Confirming this born dead male calf of elephant M K Mahaling deputy director of south division of PTR said “ The calf was a still birth. Still birth is death in womb. It was carried down 8 Kms for a safer place near sambhar soft release centre where two vet officials Dr P K Pandey and Dr H Lal autopsied this calf.”
On being asked as to why this corpse was so carried away on shoulders and not post mortemed and buried at the site of death on the ground Mahaling said “ Just look around the region of Burha Pahar and you will understand why our people took so much of pains and brought this body to a safer place after walking down 8 Kms with this corpse and even negotiating a river of the same name as that of pahar the Burha Nadee.” Autopsy and burial of it were done near sambhar soft release centre.
Police too admit region of Burha Pahar is littered with number of IEDs.
Vet officer P K Pandey said the stomach of the calf was without milk. It had died in the womb itself. He further said there was no blood in its heart too.
He reiterated the elephant calf was dead in womb as it neither sucked mother for milk nor was any blood flow in its heart.
Pandey further said there was no repulsive odour coming from the body which meant the born dead incident occurred on Sunday itself which the PTR personnel noticed fast. About 7 to 8 years back a similar still birth case was reported in the North division of PTR in Betla. The placental membrane of this calf was intact Pandey said.
Mother elephant did all to make its child calf get up but when she lost all hope of its getting up she left it in despair by defacing its face said Pandey terming this as a very sad reaction from a mother for her dead infant.
Elephant’s pregnancy duration is from 615 days to 650 days and still birth does occur during this stretch of pregnancy said Pandey.
On what could be the cause of this still birth of this male elephant calf Pandey said ‘ This is difficult to say. There may be biological reasons or material reasons but no guessing is preferable.”