We were called out to attend carcasses of elephants that were recently dead at Poha. Report was that elephants had died that morning as they had seen one still moving its back legs.David from research accompanied me on 150 km drive to Poha to coordinates given by wardens on patrol.We were advised that turn off to track was 20km from main road and in fact it was 38 km.When we arrived at coordinates we could see no evidence of elephants however we did see foot tracks of wardens on patrol.I followed tracks for approximately one and a half kilometers until we found elephant carcasses. There was no evidence of tracks from them near carcasses but it’s possible the vultures had obliterated them. They passed about 50 meters from there.
There were 2 carcasses of elephants at least 5 days old. They were desiccated and had no body fluids whatsoever to take samples from.There was no evidence of trauma I could see on upper portion of elephant. No evidence of bloody excaudate, that is normally seen when animals die of anthrax. I have no conclusion as to their cause of death.On returning the warden at gate would not let us in and was very belligerent.
We had informed previous wardens when we departed that we would be late. His excuse was that he was not informed. I find that this attitude was totally unnecessary as we had both properly identified ourselves. Finally after 30 minutes he let us pass.This was a 300 kilometer round trip taking us almost 6 hours to complete. Improper coordinates and improper information was given to us as to state of elephants decomposition
