One of the two wild elephants spotted in the rural areas of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh over the past couple of days was found dead on Friday afternoon, a forest official said.
The carcass was spotted near Mohas village, some 15 kilometres from the district headquarters, and a team of veterinarians were at the spot to ascertain the cause of death, which, prima facie, looks like one from cardiac arrest, said divisional forest officer (DFO) Anjana Tirkey.
The tusker may have suffered a cardiac arrest during a fall after being pushed by the other pachyderm. the DFO informed.
A search has been mounted for the other tusker, she added.
The two tuskers entered the district from Mandla towards the south and were moving about in the area, though there were no reports of the them having harmed anybody or damaged property in Mangeli, Mohgas or Jamtara villages, she had said earlier in the day.
The duo entered the state from Balaghat, a district on the Chhattisgarh border, and have been spotted in Satpura Tiger Reserve in Hoshangabad and Mandla's Kanha Tiger Reserve (Mandla), as well as Seoni bordering Maharashtra, she said.
Earlier, Bargi police station in charge Shivraj Singh had said people in the areas where the tuskers were spotted were told to be alert and avoid crossing paths with them.
