Wild tusker found dead in Dudhwa

On Sunday, the patrolling teams of Dudhwa National Park sighted the carcass of the tusker lying in the forests.

A full grown-up wild male tusker was found dead in Belaghat beat forests under Sathiyana range of Dudhwa National Park (DNP) on Sunday.

Carcass of the wild tusker recovered from Dudhwa forests on Sunday. (HT photo)

This is the second incident of a wild elephant casualty this year.

Earlier on April 19, a female wild elephant had been found dead in south Sonaripur range forests of DNP. The postmortem report had established infection in the uterus to be the cause of death.

On Sunday, the patrolling teams of Dudhwa National Park sighted the carcass of the tusker lying in the forests.

They intimated the deputy field director Rengaraju T, who apprised the field director B. Prabhakar of the incident for further procedure.

Several puncture wounds were visible on the carcass, indicating fight with some other wild elephant.

Field director B. Prabhakar said: “Postmortem done by veterinary officer Dr Baburam Verma, Dudhwa wild veterinary experts Dr Daya Shankar and Dr Deepak Verma has established ‘infighting among animals led to rib cage rupture, heart puncture and circulatory system failure (Syncope)’ caused the death.”

Preliminary observations and circumstantial evidence also indicated infighting among the wild elephants to be the cause of death, he said.

He added that a couple of days back, a herd of over three dozen elephants had been sighted roaming around in the area.