Two elephants found dead floating in river in Raigarh

Raipur: Two elephants were found dead and their carcasses floating in a river in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district on Wednesday evening, prompting a forest department probe into another elephant fatality in the region, where five such deaths were reported in the past four months.The carcasses were spotted floating in the Kurkut river near compartment number 1273 in the Gharghoda forest range, where a herd of around 19 elephants moved in recent days. Villagers alerted forest officials after noticing the two pachyderms floating in the water.A forest department team, led by Gharghoda range staff, rushed to the spot and began efforts to retrieve the bodies. One carcass, believed to be of an elephant around five years old, was pulled out of the river, while attempts were on to recover the second body located some distance away.A team of veterinarians was present at the site. Prima facie it appeared that the elephants may have died after getting trapped in slush formed by water in the river or while bathing or attempting to cross it, forest officials said no conclusion could be drawn until the post-mortem report was available.About a year ago, three elephants were found dead together in the Chuhkimar plantation area of Bakchaba beat in Tamnar range. That case was later linked to electrocution from an 11 kV live wire, following which the concerned circle in-charge and beat guard were suspended.The state govt, in its recent reply to a query regarding wildlife deaths in the assembly, said that a total of 38 elephants died in Chhattisgarh between 2023 and 2026 so far, while 562 cases of unnatural deaths of other wildlife were also recorded during the period.