Forest officials on Thursday retrieved the carcass of a one-month-old elephant calf from a pond in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district. Prima-facie it seems the calf got trampled by bigger elephants in its herd and drowned after entering the water body in the Chhal range of Dharamjaigarh forest division, said Abhishek Jogawat, divisional forest officer. A herd of 52 elephants has been roaming in the area. The herd was bathing in the same pond from where the carcass of the calf was recovered, he said. Water was found inside the lungs of the calf which indicates that it got stuck in the mud and suffocated to death inside water, he said.

 

The dead calf was buried after carrying out the post-mortem, he said. With the latest loss, three elephant calves have died in separate incidents in the district so far this year. Nearly, 80 elephants have lost their lives in Chhattisgarh over the past six years, with the causes ranging from ailments and age to electrocution, officials had said earlier. Human-elephant conflicts in the northern part of the state have been a major concern over the past decade. The districts facing the menace mainly are Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur and Balrampur.