Another elephant found dead in Karlapat sanctuary, 6 died in 2 weeks

Bhubaneswar, Feb 15: Another female elephant was found dead at Karlapat Wildlife sanctuary in Odisha's Kalahandi district, a Forest official said. Currently, as many as six elephants, five female and a calf, have died at Karlapat Wildlife sanctuary within 14 days of this month, the official said.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Kalahandi South Division Ashok Kumar and his team and veterinary doctors are camping in the area undertaking surveillance. "The death of elephants is due to Haemorrhage Septicemia (HS)," the DFO said.

However, the DFO said that there was no such report about the death of other animals in the sanctuary and also the cattle entering the forest from nearby villages.

Coordinator from Centre for Wildlife Health, OUAT (Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology), Bhubaneswar, Niranjan Sahu after visiting Karlapat sanctuary said, "The death of elephants is believed to be by HS. The postmortem report and laboratory report of one dead elephant is hinting at HS (Haemorrhage Septicemia)."

Sahu further said that cattle do get infected by HS if not vaccinated, adding that this is perhaps the first incident where elephants are also infected with HS.

He said vaccination of domesticated cattle in the villages located inside the sanctuary and sanitization is in progress by veterinary staff supported by forest staff.

Local people and wildlife lovers, however, do not take the incident lightly. Pramod Kumar Singhdeo, a local from Karlapat belonging to the erstwhile Zamindar family of Karlapat and having in-depth knowledge on the flora fauna of the locality, said: "The forest department has dug salt ponds in different places to provide salted drinking water to the wild animals."