An elephant was killed allegedly by poachers who tried to take away its tusks near Sipakuda under Rambha forest range on Tuesday.
Forest officials recovered the carcass of the 30-year-old tusker and around one-and half feet tusks were found from the spot. Though exact cause of death is not known, they suspect the elephant might have been poisoned.
“Since the elephant has no injury marks, we suspected it might have died due to consumption of poison,” a forest officer said. Cause of death can be known only after getting the postmortem report, said DFO Chilika Wildlife Division BP Acharya.
The elephant, suspected to have migrated from Chandaka sanctuary near Bhubaneswar, was roaming in the area after six other members of the herd were killed by a speeding train near Rambha on December last year. Forest officials, however, said it was not an instance of poaching as the miscreants did not take away the tusks from the spot.