By IANS
Bhubaneswar : A baby elephant in Orissa that had reunited with a herd after getting separated for 41 days met a tragic end with wildlife officials Sunday finding its carcass in a sanctuary.
The seven-month-old calf, named Kalinga, was deserted by its herd on May 5 after it fell into a ditch in Bhubaneswar.
It was rescued by officials of the Chandaka elephant reserve on the outskirts of this state capital.
After taking care of it for days together, the wildlife officials released the baby near herds of elephants.
The two herds, in groups of four and 18, reached the spot where a female, as if in a gesture of welcome, tugged at the calf before dragging it into the group. The rest encircled the baby and vanished into the jungle, according to the eyewitness accounts of two forest guards.
"But there was bad luck," local forest officer Akshya Patnaik told IANS.
The wildlife officials discovered the calf dead in a semi-decomposed state, he said.
It appears from the state of the carcass that that the animal might have died on June 26 or 27, he said.
In most cases of babies getting separated, they have been reunited with herds within 48 hours to 72 hours.
Forty-one days was too long a period for elephants to accept a calf back among them, a wildlife expert said.
The wildlife officials should have kept the baby elephant in human care rather than leaving it in the herds, the expert said on condition of anonymity.