Wild jumbo dies in fight with another tusker in Odisha

A wild elephant was killed after a fight with another tusker in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. The death is believed to have occurred a few days ago but came to light after the villagers spotted the decomposed carcass of the pachyderm near Kantalei village under Telkoi forest division in Keonjhar.

On being informed, forest officials from Keonjhar arrived at the spot and recovered the decomposed carcass. Upon examination, the remains were confirmed to belong to a male elephant, commonly referred to as ‘Makhana’, also a tusker but without prominent tusks.

Initial findings suggest that the ‘Makhna’ elephant was fatally injured in a fight with a tusker from a rival herd. For the past 25 days, two herds comprising 70-80 elephants have wreaked havoc in Telkoi, Kantalei, Durlabhapur, and Khuntapada.

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The elephants have been feeding on the standing paddy and causing huge losses for the farmers while no steps have been allegedly taken by the forest department to drive back the jumbos. 

Eyewitnesses recounted the clash between the two tuskers of two groups, where a tusker charged at and killed the Makhna in this violent encounter.

“They are not trying to solve our area's elephant menace. We had alerted that there are 70-80 elephants near the village in the last month. However, the forest department officials are not keen on taking any step to drive the wild herd back into the forest, a safer place,” alleged a local.

When contacted, HD Dhanraj, DFO, Keonjhar said, “On being informed, we rushed to the spot and recovered the carcass. There was a huge fight between two tuskers, leading to the death of one of them. It died due to heavy bleeding.”

Forest department officials are on heightened alert, coordinating closely with local communities to mitigate crop damage and avert further conflict, he added.