In these times of doom and gloom, there is a cute not-so-little bundle of joy at the Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park.

The three-month-old elephant found wandering in the Porahat jungles of West Singhbhum early in March has found a new home at the Ranchi zoo.

The baby elephant was carried to the Ranchi zoo by a team of forest department officials from Manoharpur in West Singhbhum on Thursday evening.

Ranchi zoo director Venketeswarlu said the elephant calf had been quarantined and not kept in the elephant enclosure as per zoo norms and an extra precaution following the recent death of 21-year-old tusker Samrat at the zoo.

Samrat’s viscera test results from a Bhopal lab revealed he died of the EEHV (Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses), also known as the elephant virus that can cause a highly fatal hemorrhagic disease when transmitted to young Asian elephants, the director said.

He said this was the first known case of the EEHV claming an elephant in Jharkhand. The same virus had killed six elephants at the Nandankanan zoo in Bhubaneswar last year, he said.

“As the elephant enclosure had a case of the EEHV recently, we did not feel it safe to keep the baby elephant there,” said Venketeswarlu.

“The calf is under observation of the zoo vet and an official from the Manoharpur animal nursery in West Singhbhum who came with forest department officials along with the baby elephant here. He will look after it for a week,” he said.

The calf is drinking only milk. The zoo director said elephants of that age drank 12 litres of milk every day, and that diet will continue for a couple of months.

The calf was found abandoned at Barenga forest under Anandpur forest range area of Porahat forest division on March 7, deserted by its herd. Forest officials had rescued it and put in the animal nursery at Manoharpur.

Regional chief conservator of forest (RCCF), Kolhan, Vishwanath Shah said its mother had deserted the baby, a practice elephants follow if the baby is not strong enough.

“Fortunately, the calf was not injured, only weak. It recovered with efforts of the animal nursery at Manoharpur, even though they were unable to procure 12 litres of milk a day during the lockdown,” Shah said. “We requested the principal chief conservator of forests, wildlife, for permission to shift it to Ranchi zoo.”