Jorhat, Oct. 30: When in musth, even friends turn into deadly foes.

The Kaziranga National Park lost two domesticated adult male jumbos within a span of four days, with one succumbing to his injuries today after a fierce fight between both the animals in musth.

Ranjit Baruah, a forester of the Kohora range, said the two elephants, aged about 22 years, were used for patrolling the park, aiding anti-poaching activities, removing broken trees and herding in straying rhinos to the park precincts.

“Both Gautam, a makhna (an elephant with no or very small tusks), and Ratan, a tusker, were born in the park and were close friends, almost like twins. If one was at a place, the other was sure to be somewhere near. It is a great tragedy that both these animals fought so fiercely after they went into musth and killed each other,” Baruah said.

According to accounts of eyewitnesses, as soon as musth set in Ratan, the tusker became aggressive and refused to recognise his own mahout. He was, therefore, left alone and chained to a tree, being given food by one boy who dared to go near him.

Gautam had been taken out by his mahout for some time and brought back around 4.30pm on Sunday and tied to his tree when he attacked his mahout, who somehow managed to save himself by going behind the stout tree. He then broke his chain and charged at Ratan, who was chained to the next tree.

The battle between the two continued for some time and was so fierce that Gautam died on the spot, gored in the stomach by Ratan’s large tusks, while Ratan lay mauled and broken, his head smashed, eyewitnesses said.

“Before anyone could arrive and tranquillise the elephants, the fight was over. Ratan survived for three days and we administered saline but his stomach had been damaged and many bones broken. He was bleeding from the nose, mouth and ears,” Baruah said. He passed away at 3 this morning.

For the Kohora range, only two other elephants — Rudra and Kartik — are left to do the work that Gautam and Ratan did.

Baruah said when musth starts in an elephant, they are pretty much left alone for a month or so till it lasts. They are fed less and given medicines in consultation with the veterinarian to bring down the level of aggression.

The forester further said usually females and older males who did not suffer from the problem or male jumbos under 18 years were allowed to carry tourists on their backs during elephant safaris when Kaziranga opens its doors to visitors from Friday.

In another incident, a female adult elephant was electrocuted at Bansera division of Joboka tea estate at Sonari in Sivasagar district last night. The herd had come out of the Abhaypur reserve forest and was crossing the estate when the elephant came in contact with the 11,000kV electric cable passing overhead and died.