Kaal Bhairav (25), a captive elephant of the Betla National Park, was killed on Monday night in the elephant shed in Palamu Fort. Kumar Ashish, Deputy Director, North Division of the Palamau tiger reserve said the two wild tuskers of the park killed Kaal Bhairav.

The two wild tuskers pierced their tusks into the belly of Kaal Bhairav and the primary count of the piercing holes in the stomach of the deceased elephant are said to be 20.

Such was the fierceness and severity of the piercings that intestines of the diseased elephant came out of the corpse. The two tusks of Kaal Bhairav are intact. Ashish said the deceased's tusks have been taken out of the corpse and then it will be preserved properly.  Tusks are not buried with the corpse.

Government veterinary surgeon Chandon De conducted the post mortem. Viscera has been preserved for the forensic examination.  Ashish said the fight was most ferocious between the two wild tuskers and this captive tusker in the elephant shed in Palamu Fort.

He said the captive was in the chains. The attacking elephants took advantage of this. The chains finally broke down but by then the attacking wild tuskers had full command over the captive Kaal Bhairav.

Kaal Bhairav was pushed to some distance where it fell dead. Shock and loss of blood took the toll said sources. Sources said this is the first such episode of its kind here.

Fight for supremacy among the wildlife is too common but two tuskers killing one tusker is the rarest of the rare here in Palamu tiger reserve in the last forty years. Betla national park has five captive elephants. Now, one Kaal Bhairav is no more. There are now left three female and one male captive elephants in Betla national park.

Sources said there are more than four dozen wild elephants in Betla national park.

Bhairav Sita and Murugan were brought here by road from Karnataka in the year 2018.

Ashish said our Bhairav was all fit and healthy but this sudden attack just puzzled him.  He said eight staff including the Mahout Lal Bihari Singh did try hard to drive away the attacking two wild tuskers but in vain.

These staff exploded high sounding crude crackers but the attacking two wild tuskers cared not a fig for it.