Security personnel try to lift the carcass of the elephant calf from the tank on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Sept. 25: The carcass of a male elephant calf was found floating in a water tank inside Narengi army cantonment here this morning.

The calf, aged between two and two-and-a-half years, seems to have been part of a herd which strayed into the army cantonment from the adjoining Amchang wildlife sanctuary last night.

“Army personnel and residents around the cantonment told us that they had seen a herd of about 14 elephants moving in the area for the past two days,” a police officer said.

The calf might have missed the eight-foot deep tank at night and fallen into it. The tank can hold 2.5 lakh litres of water which is used by the army for fire-fighting.

An army fire-fighter noticed the carcass floating in the tank around 10am and informed his seniors.

“The army authorities of 51 sub-area in Narengi informed me about the incident over phone this morning. We sent our staff and veterinary doctors to the spot,” said S.K. Seal Sarma, the divisional forest officer of Guwahati wildlife division.

He said a post-mortem was conducted this afternoon.

“According to the doctors, no external injury was found and the calf may have died of drowning,” he added.

Elephants often stray into the Narengi cantonment, as it is located in an elephant corridor close to Amchang wildlife sanctuary.

A calf had been rescued from a ring well in the cantonment in December 2004. The army had landed in a controversy in September 2005 when it buried a female calf without informing the forest department. It extended the information a couple of months later, citing ignorance of law and procedures as the reason for the delay.

In another development, People For Animals (PFA), an NGO, submitted a memorandum to Assam Governor S.C. Mathur today, seeking a ban on blasting and cutting of hills in an elephant corridor near Deepor Beel, a wetland on the city’s outskirts, as it was disturbing the animals.

“We want the elephant corridors to be protected to end the man-elephant conflict,” the chairperson of the Assam chapter of the PFA, Sangeeta Goswami, said.

The PFA also requested the governor to initiate appropriate measures for the protection and conservation of the beel, which was often visited by elephant herds from Meghalaya.