Guwahati, Nov 2 (PTI) A three-month-old elephant calf whose mother was electrocuted to death in Assam’s Golaghat district recently has found a new home at Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), a WTI release said on Tuesday.
Forest department personnel had rescued the animal and handed over the weak elephant calf to CWRC, a wildlife care facility jointly run by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and Assam Forest Department, and supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
The elephant calf’s 18-year-old mother died due to electrocution on October 24 when a high voltage wire fell upon her when the jumbo was moving in a herd in Dholagaon area.
The elephant calf was rescued four days later by the forest department personnel from near Dholagaon.
The baby elephant was suffering from starvation due to lack of mother’s milk and was in a highly stressed condition, the release said.
During necropsy, we were certain that the dead elephant was a lactating one. But the baby was missing and we advised the forest officials to keep a watch, Dr. Samshul Ali, the veterinarian who did the post-mortem of the mother elephant and is now taking care of the baby elephant at CWRC, said.
The new arrival at the rehabilitation centre has found a friend in Xadiya’, another baby elephant, among the six-member jumbo family of CWRC, the WTI release said.
The vulnerable baby is gradually recovering from loneliness in presence of other elephant calves and pachyderms at CWRC, it added.