In peril

Kokrajhar, June 14: Poachers killed an elephant and sawed off its trunk inside Raimona forest in Assam’s Kokrajhar district along the Indo-Bhutan border.

Another elephant, fitted with a radio collar, was found dead on the Assam-West Bengal border of the district. Kokrajhar shares its border with both West Bengal and Bhutan.

The elephant body found in Raimona-Maktegaon forest, nearly 100km from Kokrajhar town, was that of a male elephant and was found this morning.

“We suspect it to be a case of poisoning. There were no injuries on the body but the trunk was sawn off,” a forest official said.

He said the elephant was probably killed on Friday and a post-mortem would ascertain the cause of its death.

Forest personnel had to trek from Gossaigaon to the spot on the Indo-Bhutan border. They returned this evening.

Forest officials said the death of the radio-collared female elephant was a “loss” since the animal was under observation by the forest departments of both West Bengal and Assam. The West Bengal forest department had put the radio collar on the elephant about three years ago.

“The elephant has been moving in the jungles along Assam’s border with West Bengal and Bhutan for several years now. We were observing the yearly migratory route of the elephant,” an official said.

The West Bengal forest department sent information about the radio-collared elephant’s death to Assam yesterday.

“We finally found the elephant on the bank of Sankosh river,” said R.N. Boro, the divisional forest officer of Kochugaon forest division in Kokrajhar district.

Boro said the elephant had probably died because of infection and a post-mortem would ascertain the cause of death. “There was an infection on its neck,” he added.

A team from the Wildlife Trust of India and forest officials have gone to the Indo-West Bengal border to probe the elephant’s death.