Ranchi, Sep 17 (PTI) A 12-year-old elephant was found dead with its tusks missing inside a forest in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district, an official said on Saturday.

The official said whether the male pachyderm died a natural death or was killed could be confirmed only after getting the postmortem examination report.

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The carcass of the elephant was found in Gormora forest Friday afternoon.

“When we reached the spot after getting the information from villagers, we found that two tusks of the dead elephant missing. It seems they were chopped off,” Mandu forest range officer Suresh Ram told PTI.

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He said that a search operation was launched for the missing tusks.

“We are interrogating local cattle herders, as they are the regular visitors of the forest,” he said.

With this, carcasses of three elephants were found in Jharkhand for three consecutive months.

A pregnant elephant was found dead in Palamu Tiger Reserve on August 16. People also spotted the carcass of an adult male elephant in a forest in Ranchi district on July 23.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)