Baby elephant dies of asphyxiation

Midnapore, Oct 27 (UNI) A one-month-old elephant was suffocated to death when a herd of 60-70 pachyderms were taking bath in a huge pond in West Bengal's Salboni forest in the district.

Divisional Forest Officer, Midnapore, Ashis Samanta today said the local people of Chandankath village under Ghagrasole discovered that the carcass of the elephant was floating.

The herd of elephant, which came down from the Dalma hills about a month back, gave birth to at least 10 babies and staying in the Godapiashal range, the DFO said. They also fed on the standing crops in the area for sometime.

Following yesterday's heavy rainfall after a period of hot spell, the hard was taking bath when the baby collapsed after being sandwiched between the giant jumbos, the DFO quoting a post mortem report as saying.

The mother elephant unable to bear the grief had come down from the forest to charge the forest officials while the post mortem was being carried out, the DFO said.

He said the jumbos would be driven away towards Lalgargh forest soon.

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