Kesinga: A newborn elephant calf was found dead in a farmland near Mundagaon village under Kamardhha section of Narla forest range in Kalahandi district Monday, the forest department informed Tuesday.
According to the villagers, a herd of elephants had strayed into Mundagaon village from Bargel forest in search of food Sunday night. It had entered into the agricultural land of a villager named Banamali Budhia. Budhia had transplanted paddy in this land two days before. The land was still muddy. It was when the herd was passing through the land that a pregnant elephant fell down. In labour pain, she trumpeted a lot and later gave birth to a baby elephant in the mud. The mother elephant and the rest of the animals in the herd kept guarding the baby for around six hours.
Hearing the trumpet, members of elephant squad team and villagers rushed to the spot. Seeing people coming towards them, the elephants ran towards the jungle. But the mother elephant was still there. However, after a while, she also went towards the jungle.
By the time the baby animal was recovered it had already died. On being informed, the DFO in-charge Kalahandi North Division Malay Ranjan Kalu, ACF Jitendra Sahu, Narla ranger Giridhari Nag and Kamardhha forester Nabin Kumar Majhi reached the spot. Later, the carcass was buried as per due procedure.
PNN