2 elephants found dead within 2 days in Chhattisgarh; Centre asks state to take action

In yet another unfortunate incident, two wild elephants, one of them pregnant, were found dead at a forest range in Surajpur district of Chhattisgarh in the last two days, a forest official said on Wednesday.

'The elephant had a cyst in her liver'

According to the official, the pregnant elephant died because of a liver ailment in the early hours of Tuesday and the carcass of another female pachyderm is yet to be recovered as a herd was surrounding it till Wednesday evening.

"The carcasses were found at separate places in Ganeshpur area of Pratappur forest range, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of forests (wildlife) Arun Kumar Pandey told PTI. Meanwhile, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Surajpur division J R Bhagat said the preliminary post-mortem report of pregnant pachyderm revealed that she had a cyst in her liver and some problem in the spleen that might have led to her death.

Forest ministry directs state govt to take action

According to forest officials, the dead elephants belonged to a herd that had been wandering in the area for the last couple of days. Meanwhile, the Union Environment Ministry on Wednesday directed the forest department of Chhattisgarh to take appropriate action in the deaths of these two wild elephants. The ministry also asked the forest department to apprise it on the matter.

The deaths of the two elephants come just days after a pregnant elephant died in Kerala's Palakkad district after she ate a cracker-filled pineapple. The incident caused massive outrage in the country, with people across walks of life demanding stringent punishment for the culprits. 

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Primary investigations into the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala has found that it may have accidentally consumed a cracker-stuffed fruit, the Environment Ministry said on Monday. The ministry also noted that many times locals resort to an illegal act of planting explosive-filled fruits to repel wild boars from entering plantation farms.

The Kerala government and all departments concerned of the ministry are handling the matter in an unbiased manner. Kerala Forest officials have also arrested one of the three main accused in the killing of the pachyderm.

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(With agency inputs) (Representative image: PTI)