Bhawanipatna: The decomposed carcass of an elephant calf was found Sunday morning inside Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary in Kalahandi district.
The carcass of the calf was sighted at Ghusuriguda village inside the wildlife sanctuary. With this, the death toll of jumbos owing to hemorrhagic septicemia reached seven in the last 20 days, an official source informed.
On the other hand, a three-member Central expert team is on a visit to the creek in the sanctuary. The team comprising Centre for Wildlife (ICAR-IVRI Bareilly) scientist Karikalan Mathesh, MoEF&CC Elephant Cell national coordinator Prajna Panda and head of the department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, OUAT, Prof Niranjan Sahoo has been trying to find out the cause of deaths of the pachyderms in the sanctuary. The Central team is expected to depart Sunday after finishing their survey.
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Notably, post-mortem reports and survey findings of the Central team have attributed the cause of death to hemorrhagic septicemia. The three-member Central team has concluded that high stress level of the elephants could be the reason behind successive deaths.
Immunisation of cattle in several villages located in close vicinity of the creek where the jumbo deaths were reported has been carried out. Water bodies in the wildlife sanctuary have also been disinfected as a preventive measure to contain the spread of the disease.
PNN