Elephant died in Sambalpur pond might have succumbed to bullet injury: DFO

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Sambalpur: The elephant which died at a pond in Sambalpur on Tuesday might have died due to a bullet injury. This was informed by the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Biswanath Nilambaram today.

While speaking to the media persons, the DFO said that a bullet has been recovered from the body of the elephant which died at a pond near Saplahara village in Sambalpur district on June 21.

He informed that the bullet, which is of 4 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter, had entered 40 cm deep inside the elephant’s front leg bone.

The tusker suffered from septicemia due to the bullet injury, which also caused its multi-organ failure leading to its death, said Nilambaram adding that, however, the exact reason behind the death of the tusker will be ascertained only after receiving the postmortem report.

Meanwhile, three persons have been detained by the forest officials as their role in the elephant’s death is suspected. A country-made gun and an axe were also seized from their possession.

On June 17, the tusker accidentally entered a pond near Sapalahara village and could not come out of the mud due to weakness.

The forest officials and the firefighters with the help of the locals tried their best to rescue the ailing pachyderm from the pond. However, as they could not rescue it, the elephant remained in the water for the last three days.

Treatment of the elephant was initiated with the help of a team of expert doctors from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology University (OUAT) as it had some injury marks on its body. However, the elephant breathed its last during the process of treatment on June 21.

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