The reasons for the death of the elephant named “Bangabahadur”, or Hero of Bengal, were not immediately clear.
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It had been swept away in strong river currents during floods in north-east India before being found in neighbouring Bangladesh.
An elephant thought to have travelled at least 1,000 miles (1,600km) from India into Bangladesh after floods separated it from the herd has died, despite efforts to save it.
A local newspaper quoted vet Mustafizur Rahman as saying the elephant had a heart attack – with stress, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance being factors.
The elephant, exhausted and weak from its struggle, had been tranquilized earlier in an attempt to steer it from the swamp and to bring it closer to a road so it could be transported to an elephant safari park.
Tapan Kumar Dey, a former forest conservator who was overseeing the rescue operation, said the elephant died despite the “highest efforts” to save it. A Bangladeshi official had previously said India can take it back if possible “otherwise we will keep the elephant”. “But our luck is bad”, he said.
Local villagers jumped into the pond to save the four-ton animal from drowning by stopping it from toppling into the water. “We had mobilised huge manpower, provided it decent food and treatment but could not save it”, a forest department official familiar with the efforts to rescue him told PTI.
The shrinking natural habitat of wildlife animals has made it increasingly hard for them to move to safer areas during monsoon floods.
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The rescue team which was sent to Bangladesh by the Assam government to retrieve the elephant stranded in Bangladesh had failed to tranquilize the pachyderm.
