Two wild elephants died in separate locations of Kalchini block, Alipurduar district, on Saturday.While an elephant calf that had fallen into a drain died after other members of the herd walked over it, a female pregnant elephant died of a parasitic attack.

Early on Saturday, some residents of Bharnabari tea estate spotted the carcass of the elephant calf in the drain, buried in mud. They informed foresters who found several footprints of elephants in the area.

“The calf was around six months old and there were no external injuries. It seems that the calf fell on the drain and other members of the herd, who were oblivious to it, walked over it, killing it,” said a forest officer.

In the other incident, workers of Nimati tea estate, also in Kalchini, spotted a female adult elephant lying near the plantation and groaning in pain. They informed foresters who went there and found that the animal was pregnant.

“The animal was in pain and died. We suspected it had developed some illness,” said a forester.

A recovery van shifted the elephant’s carcass to the neighbouring Nimati forest. “Vets did its post-mortem there and found large numbers of elephant botflies in its stomach. A sample of the parasitic flies will be sent to the Zoological Survey of India,” said Praveen Kaswan, the deputy field director (west) of Buxa Tiger Reserve. Both the animals have been cremated in different places, said foresters.