Injured jumbo dies in Dhama forest range
The injured elephant roaming the forests of Sambalpur’s Dhama range died early on Tuesday. This has led villagers to accuse forest officials of neglecting the injured elephant leading to his death. Wildlife activists have demanded a probe into the incident.
Villagers had spotted the injured tusker on July 24 while it was roaming in the Dhama forest range. Suspecting that it was a bullet injury, they had informed the local forest officials to provide treatment to the elephant. But officials had treated the elephant only once. “The elephant could have survived had it been given proper treatment to heal the injury,” social activist Saurav Mahapatra said.
Forest officials have denied that there was any negligence on their part. “We treated the elephant with antibiotics when villagers informed us. But it died because it did not respond to the treatment. We have conducted autopsy and cremated the body. We will come to know the cause of the death once we receive the post mortem report,” a senior forest official of Sambalpur said on Tuesday.
IIM Sambalpur
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