Second Arrest In Athagarh Jumbo Death

Athagarh: Police on Tuesday arrested one more person in connection with death of a female elephant near Taila in Rajnagar Sadar under Sukasan reserve forest of the Athagarh Forest Range on December 12.

The accused has been identified as Deba Dehury. He was later produced in a local court, which rejected his bail plea and sent him to jail custody.

Earlier, one Prasanna Dehury of Rajnagar area was arrested for his alleged involvement in the poaching case.

Notably, carcass of a female elephant was found with blood oozing out of its mouth near Taila under Athagarh Forest Range in Cuttack district.

A day after carcass of the 7-year-old elephant was found, Athagarh Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sasmita Lenka had confirmed that it was a case of poaching.

According to the postmortem conducted by a team of veterinary doctors from OUAT led by Prof Dr Niranjan Sahoo, the elephant’s tongue was chafed and there were severe injuries inside its mouth. It is suspected that something exploded inside its mouth, leading to severe bleeding. It reportedly died of excessive blood loss.