Odisha”s Forest Department launched a thorough probe on Monday after two wild elephants were found dead inside a reserve forest area in Keonjhar district and it is suspected that the jumbos were electrocuted by poachers, officials said.
The carcasses of the female and male elephants were recovered by forest officials near Gurubeda area from Baitarani (B) reserve forest on Sunday following inputs from locals, a forest official said.
The tusks of the male elephant were missing and efforts were on to ascertain the actual cause of the death of the jumbos, he said.
The female elephant was around 20 years old and the carcass seemed to be lying there for more than a week. The male tusker, aged around 22 years, was suspected to have died around three days ago.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the animals were killed by poachers as the tusks of the male elephant were missing, the official said, adding that the exact cause would be ascertained after an autopsy and a thorough probe.
Senior officials, including Joda Additional Principal Chief Conservator Sashi Pal and Regional Chief Conservator of Forests (RCCF), Rourkela, B K Swain, visited the site on Monday in order to conduct a detailed enquiry.
During the site inspection, the officials recovered long electrical wires and insulators from the area which indicated that the pachyderms were electrocuted, Keonjhar Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Santosh Joshi said.
It is suspected that electric wires had been spread in the area by poachers to kill small wild animals like deer and boar, and the two elephants got electrocuted after coming in contact with those live wires, he said.
The tusks of the male elephant had been cut and removed by using a sharp object, its trunk also bore injury marks, he said.
The investigation is in progress and the forest department is taking the help of police as part of efforts to nab the culprits, the officials said.
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