The carcass of a baby elephant (wild) was recovered on Thursday morning along the bank of the river Barnodi in No 1 Bagrikhuti Village under Nagrijuli Police Outpost under the jurisdiction of Tamulpur Forest Range Office in the district of Baksa (Assam).
Few villagers saw the caracass of the elephant calf lying near a paddy field along the bank of the river Barnodi early in the morning on Thursday. The news spread like wild fire and very soon a huge crowd gathered at the spot to take a look at the baby elephant’s carcass. A lot of villagers shed tears over the tusker’s death and few paid floral tributes.
The local people informed the personnel posted at Nagrijuli Police Outpost and the Forest Department authorities about the elephant carcass. Nikhil Singha, In-charge of the outpost came to the spot with a police team. A team of Forest Department officials also rushed to the spot and started investigations to find out the exact cause behind the death of the elephant calf (wild). But, the Forest Department personnel could not ascertain the exact cause behind the baby elephant’s death.
Later, a veterinary doctor was called in to conduct postmortem following which the carcass of the calf was buried on the spot with the help of the villagers. The villagers stated that a herd of wild elephants were seen moving in the Nagrijuli area few days back. It is reported that on Wednesday night, a herd of wild elephants had entered No 1 Bagrikhuti Village and had “feasted” on a huge stretch of paddy fields and destroyed the same. It is suspected that the elephant calf might have entered the said village with the herd and might have been killed by irate villagers.
It may be mentioned that man-elephant conflict is taking alarming proportions in Assam. With the human population rising by the day and people settling on elephant corridors, the tuskers are being compelled to come out in the open in search of food and, in the process, destroying human hutments and paddy fields.