Ailing tusker succumbs to bullet injury

Kamakhyanagar, Nov 28:  An ailing tusker with a bullet injury on its leg died Friday at Kandarkateni under eastern Kamakyanagar forest range in Dhenkanal district.

The pachyderm succumbed as it couldn’t move and collect food after it was injured on its rear left leg, Pradip Kumar Sahoo, divisional forest officer (DFO), said.

Reports said that the locals Thursday informed the forest officials about the movement of an ailing elephant in the area which possibly belonged to Sukinda forest range. Officials along with a veterinarian of Kankadahada reached the site and spotted the wound in its leg. They tried to administer it medicines through ripe bananas, but the elephant didn’t take them.

Yogeswar Mahant, a villager, said he along with six members of the elephant squad nursed the tusker the whole night, but it lost the battle Friday morning.

Alerted, DFO Sahoo along with eastern range officer Basant Kumar Mallik reached the spot. Kankadahada veterinary surgeon Satya Bikram Tarai conducted the autopsy on the tusker. Tarai removed a bullet from the animal’s leg. Due to the presence of the bullet in its body, the tusker’s movement had been restricted and it suffered from dehydration which caused the death, Tarai concluded. Septicaemia might be one more reason of death, he added.

Meanwhile, treatment of another tusker between 30 to 35 years of age has begun near Kandhabol under eastern forest range. The elephant also carries a wound in its leg.