A wild rogue elephant that was tranquilised, captured and relocated to the Orang National Park in Assam last week died on Sunday, The Indian Express reported. The elephant was captured after it killed five people in Goalpara district on October 29.
Veterinarian KK Sarma said the main cause of the animal’s death was cardiac arrest. “The primary reason was a heart disease that the animal had and the process of capture and translocation could have been a precipitating cause,” Sarma said, adding that further tests would be conducted to determine what caused the cardiac arrest. But, he also said that the heart muscles had died earlier and this was not caused by recent events.
“The elephant was in constant observation and good care and had started responding well to the mahouts,” Divisional Forest Officer (Mangaldai) BV Sandeep said in a statement. It added that the animal had several old wounds that were festering on its body.
The animal was between 30 and 35 years old. It was named Laden by local residents, after the Al Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden. But forest officials rechristened it Krishna after capturing it on November 11, according to NDTV.
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