Jamshedpur: Elephant calf dies at Dalma wildlife sanctuary

Jamshedpur, July 19 : An elephant calf died after suffering injuries when it accidently came close to a fight between two adult tuskers inside the Dalma wildlife sanctuary. The incident occurred at about 10 pm inside Ghuijharna jungles near Konkadasa.

Foresters came to know about the incident late on Wednesday evening but could ascertain the death of the one-and-a-half-year-old male calf on Thursday morning. A postmortem was conducted on the spot this afternoon by two government vets R.K Singh and Surender Kumar Singh.

According to Dalma range officer R.P. Singh, tusk of one of the elephants had hit deep into the calf�s abdomen leading to death.

The range officer added the calf, which was part of a herd of about a dozen elephants, came too close to the fighting tuskers. �We are investigating the incident and gathering facts. The calf must have got separated from the herd and came across the two adult tuckers,� he said.

Notably Dalma is the best elephant habitat of Jharkhand, where the pachyderms love to spend their summer. The availability of water during summer is all the more alluring for the elephants to migrate. There are over 80 elephants in the Dalma sanctuary. The elephants often have the tendency to go into agricultural fields adjoining the sanctuary in search of food. The forest department has made arrangements to keep them anchored in Dalma, by providing water and greenery.

The measures taken by the forest department include availability of adequate water holes, salt licks and sufficient food for the tuskers. But these are not enough for all the elephants residing in the area.

On an average 75 elephants are in the Dalma forest range spreading across the three districts of the Kolhan division but theyaremigratory and are available in thick numbers largely in the months ofMay-June-July.