Elephant found dead in Odisha’s Keonjhar district

KEONJHAR: A 25-year-old elephant which had sneaked into Hatadihi block of Keonjhar district from Hadgarh sanctuary was found dead at a mango orchard on Wednesday.

Sources said the elephant had entered Soso area in search of food. Elephants generally enter villages like Soso, Niudani, Kanpur and Baghua in the district from the sanctuary during summer. Two elephants had been entering Soso village for the last seven years and one of them had probably returned to the sanctuary. The other was found dead on the day. Locals suspect the elephant was electrocuted as it was in good health.

Pranab Mohanty, a local said locals wrap electric wires around sticks erected to make a fence to prevent elephants from entering the villages. DFO Abhay Kumar Dallei, range officer Marshal Kisku and Soso IIC Vijay Kumar Bihari reached the spot to complete formalities. Dallei said the exact reason for the elephant’s death will be known after postmortem.