Bhawanipatna: One more female elephant died due to septicaemia in the Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary here in Kalahandi district on Sunday.
With the fresh death, the wildlife sanctuary witnessed six elephant deaths within a gap of 14 days.
Kalahandi RCCF Sudipta Dash informed that the carcass of jumbo was found in the same place where other carcasses were recovered earlier. The female jumbo's carcass has been seized for post-mortem, he added.
Yesterday, an elephant was found dead near the water body in the sanctuary. The death was due to same reason, forest officials had said.
The water bodies in the sanctuary may have been infected, forest officials said.
Divisional Forest Officer, Kalahandi (South Division), Ashok Kumar said, stagnant water is being treated with bleaching powder to avoid further spread and water samples have been collected from different spots for testing.
The DFO said that experts from the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), have arrived in the protected area for conducting field analysis.
The first death was reported on February 1 when carcass of a pregnant jumbo was found near Tentulipada village inside the sanctuary. The next three deaths were reported from near Ghusurigudi nullah in the sanctuary.
The lab test of the first elephant carcass conducted in the Centre for Wildlife Health, OUAT, in Bhubaneswar revealed that the death was due to haemorrhage septicaemia.