Keonjhar: A mother elephant guarded its calf that died soon after birth. The jumbo was also seen trumpeting the whole night till the forest department drove the animal away from the spot.
It happened at a forest near Daduann village under Joda forest Beat in Keonjhar district.
On Sunday night, a herd of elephants was roaming near Duduan village. A female elephant in the herd gave birth to a calf. The baby elephant died shortly after birth.
After the calf died, the mother elephant and her companions did not leave the place and guarded the carcass whole night. The mother elephant was also screaming.
The locals informed the forest department in the morning after learning about the death of the baby elephant.
ASF Ashok Kumar Das, Champua ranger Akshay Chhatria and other forest officials reached the spot on receiving the information.
Later, the forest team drove away the elephant and its companion to the nearby Daduan forest. The forest officials recovered the body of the calf and sent it for post-mortem.
The reason of the death of the jumbo calf remains unclear.
The forest department said that the cause of death would be known after the autopsy report.
