A female elephant was found dead at the Palamau Tiger Reserve in Jharkhand’s Latehar district early on Tuesday morning, months after the death of an aged tigress and two bisons.

“Our forest guards found the dead elephant around 5am at a spot, about half a kilometre away from the entrance of Betla National park (a part of PTR), today,” PTR deputy director Kumar Ashish told The Telegraph, adding the animal was not there when the guards had gone at the same spot after hearing sound of a herd around 3am.

The guards found the dead elephant when they went there again around 5am, he further informed, adding that the animal had no sign of external injury on its body.

It was a short-statured animal as it looked like about 15-year old by height while other features suggested its age to be 25 years or so, he further said.

“It could an old injury mark,” he replied when asked about a mark on the dead elephant’s forehead as seen in a photo, adding an elephant may often get cuts and bruises while moving in the forest.

“Our vet has already conducted the post-mortem and found the dead elephant’s lung to be infected with pneumonia,” the deputy director said on Tuesday when asked about the possible reasons.

Two viscera samples have been collected, he said. While one would be sent to Ranchi Veterinary College for chemical analysis, the other was preserved for sending to Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Bareilly (UP), if required.

A 16-year tigress was found dead within the Betla National Park in February and a deep wound on its back suggested it was perhaps gorged to death by a bison, possibly during its fight with a herd.

Though some, judging by the photograph of the dead tigress, had raised doubt if it was killed by poachers, others who had seen the carcass said the animal’s claws and teeth had worn out due to age and it could have been gorged by a bison.

Since no tiger was sighted at PTR for a long time, some opined that the tigress, by its death, had proved it existed.

This was followed by deaths of two bisons in quick succession. While a female bison was found dead on April 29, carcass of an adult male was found on May 4.

The animals died of natural causes, the authorities had said as the reason in both cases.