At least 18 wild elephants have been found dead under mysterious circumstances atop Bamuni Hills under Barhampur police station in Central Assam’s Nagaon district.

As per reports, while the carcasses of the four elephants were found dead lying on the foothills, the rest were spotted atop the hills on Thursday.

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Forest officials said the report of the elephant deaths came on Thursday afternoon after local villagers informed them.

The cause behind the death of the elephants is yet to be ascertained. Forests officials suspect the elephants might be killed after being hit by lightning.

Forest officials have rushed to the spot and a postmortem examination will be conducted on Friday.

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Experts have said that without a postmortem examination, it is hard to concede that the elephants died due to lightning.

“Post-mortem reports will reveal the cause of the death of the elephants.  However, prima-facie it does not look like a case of lighting. The death of the elephants might be due to poisoning,” said elephant experts Vijayananda Choudhury.

This is the first case in the country, where such a large number of wild elephants have died together in an incident.

Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has asked forest and environment minister Parimal Suklabaidya to rush to the spot to find out the cause of the death of the elephants.