Wild elephant killed as bomb goes off in its mouth

A 10-year-old female wild elephant was killed when a country bomb kept in a mango garden to hunt boars went off in its mouth at Pulibonuvari village, said forest department officials.

They said the animal mistook the low intensity bomb covered with some eatables as food and had tried to eat it. The resulting blast severely injured its entire mouth cavity and it died. The incident occurred on Monday.

The officials suspect the bomb had been kept there by farmers in the area to scare wild boars entering the gardens situated close to the forest. A herd of about two dozen elephants have been prowling the vast and dense Seshachalam forest ranges, they said.

No one has been arrested so far and investigation is on into the death of the tusker, the officials said.