18 wild Asiatic elephants found dead in remote protected forest in India
Indian authorities launched a probe Friday into the deaths of at least 18 elephants as a leading conservationist raised doubts that the animals were killed by lightning, the cause cited as likely by government officials.
The dead herd was found in the hilly Kandali Proposed Reserve Forest in the remote northeastern India state of Assam on Thursday.
Forest officials and a local lawmaker, Jitu Goswami, told Agence France-Presse they believed the elephants died after lightning struck the forest.
But prominent conservationist Soumyadeep Datta, from environmental activist group Nature's Beckon, said that was unlikely based on social media images.
"Poisoning could be behind the death of the elephants," Datta told AFP. "We have to wait for the autopsy report, which the forest department will do soon."
A team of vets and officials headed to the site on Friday together with Parimal Shuklabaidya, Assam's forests and environment minister.
India is home to nearly 30,000 elephants, around 60 percent of the wild Asian elephant population.
In recent years there have been an increasing number of incidents of elephants killed by locals -- and vice-versa -- as humans encroach farther into forest areas.