Berhampur: A newborn elephant calf was found dead in Sorada forest range in Odisha’s Ganjam district on Wednesday, forest department officials said.
A herd of 14 elephants, including the mother, was camping about half a km from the spot near Gajalbadi, divisional forest officer of South Ghumusar division Sudarshan Behera said.
The female baby elephant may have died just after her birth, he said.
The mother elephant stayed there for some time after her delivery and is likely to have tried to take away the baby but could not. It then moved some distance away along with other elephants of the herd, Behera said.
A new born Asian elephant is approximately two feet high and weighs about 120 kg.
The post-mortem was conducted but the exact cause of the baby elephant’s death is not known, he said. The herd might have migrated from Baliguda forest area in Kandhamal district, forest officials said.
The samples of the carcass will be sent to Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology in Bhubaneswar for laboratory tests to ascertain the cause of the death, Behera said.
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