03 November,2009 12:10 PM IST | | IANS
A five-year-old male elephant was found dead in a hamlet in the middle of a forest in Chhattisgarh's northern Surguja area, forest department officials said Tuesday.
The officials, however, refused to speculate on the reasons behind the death till a post-mortem examination report was received.
"The jumbo's jaws were rotten and hundreds of insects were inside when we reached Chikni village after being informed by local people," Amarnath Prasad, divisional forest officer (Surguja) told IANS on phone.
The village where the tusker was found dead is around 400 km north of state capital Raipur.
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Local forest department officials said that the jumbo died several days ago.
Chhattisgarh's northern region, comprising Surguja, Jashpur, Koria, Korba and Raigarh districts, have recorded a sharp rise in man-elephant conflicts in recent months.
The state government annually pays people living in villages that are surrounded by forests millions of rupees in compensation for the loss of human lives and the massive damage caused to houses and crops by wild elephants.
Forest department officials claim that the Chhattisgarh government is desperate to find a permanent solution to the decades-old man-elephant conflict and is willing to work on a proposal by Earth Matters Foundation (an NGO) that has suggested setting up "elephant villages" to help keep wild jumbos from areas inhabited by people.
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