Elephant carcass found in Chhattisgarh's Surajpur, officials suspects clash with other tusker

The carcass was spotted on Saturday on the banks of a pond near Tukudand village under the Pratappur forest range, Pratappur’s sub-divisional officer (forest) Ashutosh Bhagat said.

Surajpur (Chhattisgarh): Forest personnel found the carcass of a female elephant in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district and suspect that it died during a fight with other jumbos, an official said on Sunday. The carcass was spotted on Saturday on the banks of a pond near Tukudand village under the Pratappur forest range, Surajpur District Forest officer Sanjay Yadav said. On Friday night, forest staff heard the trumpeting sounds of a herd of 35 elephants roaming in Pendari forest near Tukudand.

To check on the status of the herd, forest personnel went to the area on Saturday morning and found a female elephant dead, he said. “Prima facie it seems the elephant died following a fight with other jumbos in the group as a tooth mark has been found on the face of the dead elephant. The post-mortem report is awaited to ascertain the exact cause of the death,” the official said. Forest personnel were monitoring the herd’s movement to check if other elephants suffered injuries and we also alerted the villagers not to visit the forest during the night, he added. (With agency inputs)