Two-month-old elephant calf dies from head injury, not fall from hill in Bandarban

A two-month-old elephant calf found dead in a pond in Bandarban bore injury marks, with a post-mortem indicating assault as forest officials launched a joint investigation.

An elephant calf found dead in a pond in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari bore injury marks on its head and body, with a post-mortem confirming signs of assault, a veterinary surgeon said.

The surgeon, who examined the carcass, said the calf appeared to have been struck on the head by a hard object, possibly thrown from a distance. He said there were no signs of illness inside the body and suggested the mother elephant may have taken the injured calf to the pond in an attempt to ease its head pain and keep it alive by giving it water.

The body of the calf, estimated to be around two months old, was recovered on Thursday afternoon from a pond in the Bottola Muslimpara area of Sonaichhari union in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban.

The post-mortem was conducted by Mustafizur Rahman, a veterinary surgeon at Dulahazara Safari Park in Cox’s Bazar, after the body was retrieved.

He said the examination found wounds on the calf’s head and at several places on its body. “The elephant calf was not sick and it did not die from falling from a hill. It was killed,” he said. “As part of an attempt to save it, the mother elephant may have taken her calf to the pond.”

He added that the marks suggested the calf had suffered a blow to the head from a hard object or stone thrown from a distance.

Local residents first spotted the calf’s body in the pond on Tuesday. At the time, the mother elephant and an adult male from the herd were also seen beside it.

The two elephants remained standing beside the calf’s body in the shallow pond with muddy water for three days. People in the area and forest department officials watched the scene from a distance in tears.

The carcass was finally recovered three days later after the grieving mother elephant and the male elephant moved away from the pond.

Monirul Islam, an assistant conservator of forests for the Cox’s Bazar South Forest Division, said an investigation into the death of the young elephant was under way after the post-mortem report was received.

He said the range officer of Rajarkul in Cox’s Bazar and the range officer for Lama-Naikhongchhari were jointly conducting the investigation.