An elephant that was tranquillised by foresters in Jhargram on Saturday morning died within hours of it being taken to the zoological park of the Jungle Mahal town.

The death raised questions about whether the elephants health was examined before injecting chemicals into the animal to calm it down.

The elephant is a Scheduled I animal and therefore is accorded maximum protection under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

A source said the department had planned to tranquillise the elephant and send it toBuxa after the full-grown male elephant, a loner, had become violent and killed three persons in the past four days after it came from neighbouring Jharkhand.

Earlier, the Bengal forest department had tranquillised three elephants in the JungleMahal for their violent behaviour and sent them to Buxa in north Bengal for rehabilitation.

Permission from the Centre is mandatory before any elephant is captured and relocated. Bengal has permission to capture and relocate 10 elephants before it has to reapply for fresh permission.

Bengal forest ministerJyotipriya Mallick said that a primary investigation revealed that the elephant died a few hours after being tranquillised as it had infectious abdominal injuries.

“Our foresters spotted the injuries after tranquillising the animal. It was not possible to spot the injury before it was physically examined. We think the elephant turned violent because of that injury. However, we have ordered an autopsy of the corpse and the actual reason will be revealed after the report comes,” Mallick said.

A section of foresters said that the health condition of the elephant should have been assessed carefully before deciding on the dose of the tranquillising chemicals.

“It is very unfortunate that the elephant died after tranquillisation. It may have had some health problem but it had to be observed properly by a vet. The dose of the chemical is fixed according to the elephant’s age and health. Overdose of the tranquillising chemicals might have led to its death,” a forester said on condition of anonymity.

Mallick, however, claimed that there was no chance of any overdose as the best tranquillising expert was sent toJhargram for the exercise.

“There is no question of overdose. It was not possible to spot the injury till our doctors observed the elephant closely (after tranquillisation),” said the state forest minister.