The decapitated body of a Sumatran elephant, belonging to a critically endangered subspecies, was found on Monday in PT Arara Abadi in Indonesia's Riau province. In what appears to be a case of poaching, the elephant's head and trunk were cut off before its tusks were removed.

A plantation worker was alerted by the smell of the rotting corpse and found the 40-year-old male elephant at about 11:45 a.m., Suharyono, head of Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), told The Jakarta Post.

"We suspected that the elephant was killed or hunted because his head has been torn apart and his tusks had been removed," Suharyono, said. "His trunk had been cut from its base and had been thrown away at least one meter from his body."

BKSDA Riau and the Law Enforcement Unit for Environment and Forestry personnel conducted a necropsy to determine the official cause of death. They did not find any bullet wounds. The agency estimated that the elephant had been dead for six days until the time of discovery.

The elephant was reportedly the second victim found in PT AA concession area in the last two months.

There are fewer than 2,000 Sumatran elephants left now, Indonesia's environment ministry estimates, owing to reasons such as deforestation and illegal poaching for their tusks.

The Sumatran elephant was also categorized as "Critically Endangered" in 2012 as opposed to "Endangered" earlier after "half of its population has been lost in one generation", according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Another 25-year-old Sumatran elephant was found dead in East Aceh regency in Indonesia this week. Agency doctors noted that the elephant had been poisoned, similar to how an elephant was killed in the same region a year ago.

Botswana has fended off criticism of lifting a hunting ban, saying it would not threaten the elephant population
Botswana has fended off criticism of lifting a hunting ban, saying it would not threaten the elephant population AFP / MONIRUL BHUIYAN
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