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The carcasses of two more female elephants have reportedly been found in the Hiriwadunna reserve in Habara, during a joint search operation by wildlife officers and security forces, bringing the total number of elephants found dead under suspicious circumstances in the area to seven.

Wildlife officer had discovered the carcasses of 4 wild elephants yesterday (27) while another female elephant was found dead this morning.

Wildlife officers who had come across this female elephant stated that a baby elephant, believed to be around 4 years old, had continued to remain near the dead elephant not allowing any them to come near its mother.

Officers of the Sigiriya Wildlife Department, army personnel, Habarana Police and residents in the area joined in the efforts as search operations were carried out further.

Two search teams had then come across two more female elephant carcasses within the reserve, the wildlife officers said.

Postmortem examinations are to be carried out on the remains of the elephants to determine the exact cause of death while the baby elephant had been safe released back into the reserve after being tranquilized.

Wildlife officers say that all carcasses discovered so far belong to female elephants and that an exact cause of death cannot be revealed as of now as investigations are ongoing.

Meanwhile search operations are continuing to locate any other such elephants.