A two-year-old elephant calf has died of illness in Chakaria, Cox's Bazar. It was buried in the Madhushia garden at Hajirghona in the upazila's Khutakhali union after a post-mortem at noon on Sunday 9 October.

Dipon Das, assistant conservator of forests (ACF) of the Fulchhari range, said a herd of wild elephants came to the Hajirghona area of the deep forest on Friday night, and the calf is believed to have died that night. On hearing that a two-year-old elephant had died in the Madhushia garden, he went to the spot at around 1pm with the Forest Department and a veterinary surgeon from the livestock office. The elephant was buried there after the post-mortem.

He said there were no bullet or injury marks on the elephant's body and no electric traps at the site. The elephant died of illness, he said.

Muntakim Billah Masum, veterinary surgeon of the Chakaria livestock office, said the elephant appears to have died of a liver infection. The dead elephant weighed one tonne and was about six feet long. It is believed to have died two days earlier, he said.

Over the past year more than a dozen elephants have died in the Eidgaon-Gajalia, Eidgarh, Khutakhali, Fasiakhali and Ramu areas of the Cox's Bazar North Forest Division.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.