BHOPAL: An elephant calf, separated from its herd and spotted in the buffer zone of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh, died of suspected intestine infection on Sunday, a forest officer said.
With the calf’s death, the elephant toll in BTR in the last fortnight rose to 11.
“The two-month-old calf was rescued in the Chhatwal area falling under the buffer zone of BTR on Friday morning. It was suffering from intestine infection. It died on Sunday morning. The exact cause of death could however be ascertained in the postmortem report”, divisional forest officer (DFO), BTR, P K Verma told this newspaper.
The calf was part of a 12-member herd of elephants which had left it when it fell down, Mr Verma said.
“The elephant herd to which the calf belonged to was seen roaming in the nearby area”, he said.
Ten elephants, part of a separate 13-member herd, died over three days since October 29 in the BTR, triggering uproar in the conservation circles.
The toxicity report of the ten dead elephants, submitted by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), has indicated that the deaths may have been caused due to the consumption of ‘kodo’ millet crops.
However, the exact cause of deaths of the elephants could be known after other agencies, where their samples were sent, submitted their reports, a senior forest officer here said.