Bhubaneswar: An elephant that suffered severe jaw damage after ingesting a bait ball laced with explosive material on April 6 died a slow and painful death in Kandhamal district’s Baliguda forest division on Saturday. The jumbo was unable to eat as the explosion inside its mouth damaged its tongue and internal tissues.The 9-year-old giant tusker wandered nearly 200 km from the spot of explosion in Balangir forest division, surviving for 12 agonising days. It was found critically injured six days ago in Kandhamal district, prompting forest officials to launch a manhunt for those behind the killing.“We spotted the injured elephant in our territory on April 13. We started its treatment immediately on the advice of expert veterinary doctors, but infection due to jaw injury had spread to other organs and it did not survive,” said DFO (Baliguda) Ghanashyam Mahanta.Forest department officials said the elephant consumed the bait in a forest along the Balangir-Kalahandi border. “After the bomb exploded in its mouth, it kept itself elusive and isolated, fearing further attack. Therefore, its injury was not visible to forest personnel of Balangir or Kalahandi district. Moving deeper into the forest, it landed in Belghar area of Kandhamal district, where it was finally spotted. By then it was too late,” a forest officer said.Post-mortem of the elephant was performed and its carcass buried as per the protocol in the presence of officers. “We will coordinate with our counterparts in Balangir and Kalahandi to ascertain who were involved in making of the bait bomb and planting it in the forest,” said the DFO.According to wildlife authorities, in Odisha poachers have been using explosive materials to hunt wild boar. Forest officials said explosive material is blended with dough or kept inside pumpkin or pineapple and thrown in the forest to hunt wild boar.The recent killing of elephants using bait bombs has thrown a new challenge to forest department in combating wildlife crime. In the Baliguda incident, forest official suspect that a watermelon was used as a bait bomb.
