Row over what killed the giant beast as officials who gave her medical attention blasted for ‘over tranquilizing’ the distressed mammal
An exhausted elephant had died after trudging a mammoth 1,700km after becoming separated from her herd by floods.
The distressed mammal made the incredible journey between India and Bangladesh on Tuesday.
She was found washed across the border in late June and treated by experts who tranquilized her three times in an attempt to transport her to a Bangladeshi safari park.
But despite being treated with massive amounts of saline and chained in a paddy field to help her recover, she was “too weak and tired” from her ordeal, officials said.
“It breathed its last at around 7am (0100 GMT),” the government’s chief wildlife conservator Ashit Ranjan Paul told AFP.
“We have given our highest effort to save the animal. At least 10 forest rangers, vets and policemen have constantly followed it for the last 48 days. But our luck is bad,” he said.
Mr Paul believed the animal came from the northeastern Indian state of Assam, but when she reached Bangladesh she ran amok and charged into a pond.
Local villagers saved the four-tonne animal from drowning by stopping her from toppling into the water, but a mahout was critically injured during another rescue attempt on Monday after being kicked.
Local media has blamed excessive tranquilizing for the animal’s death, saying she became too weak to stand, but Mr Paul said the long journey was responsible, adding that rescue efforts had been hampered by the thousands of curious villagers following her.
“In the end it became too tired by travelling such a great length. It had been separated from its herd for some two months and did not get the nutrients that it needed,” he said.
“Thousands of villagers followed it everyday as it entered into Bangladesh and then traveled to villages and river islands across the Brahmaputra river.”
