Baripada: The Kumki elephant, ‘Mahendra’ died on Sunday night at Similipal National Park after a prolonged illness due to old age.
The 66-year-old elephant died in the Chahala range area of Similipal around 10.30 pm on Sunday. It had been suffering from age-related ailments for several days. A team of experts was treating the kumki elephant, but its health condition deteriorated rapidly over the last two days as the animal stopped consuming food.
The severe cold conditions in Mayurbhanj also contributed to the deterioration of its health, according to reports.
Veterinary doctor Abhilash Acharya attended to the elephant yesterday. Post post-mortem will be conducted to ascertain the exact reason for the death, STR field director Prakash Chand Gogineni said.
Mahendra was brought to Similipal from Maharashtra in 2001 and was trained there. Since then, the giant animal had provided services to the forest department for approximately 24 years.
The elephant was engaged in mitigating elephant-elephant conflicts in the forest and driving away elephant herds that strayed into human settlements. Additionally, the animal was utilised in tiger census activities in the Similipal tiger reserve, where experts employed the elephant to navigate dense and inaccessible forests for the census.
Mahendra worked significantly to help manage and drive wild elephants thereby reducing damage to crops, human habitations and the potential loss of both human and elephant lives.
The Kumki jumbo was also sent to Satkosia sanctuary in Angul where it provided services in tracking tiger movement.
