Bhubaneswar, April 25 (IANS) Poachers shot dead an elephant and brutally hacked around its tusks to extract ivory in the Redhakhol Forest Range in Sambalpur district of Orissa, forest officials said Sunday.

The tusker's mutilated body was found Sunday by officials during the ongoing elephant census in Rampur area of the forest range, over 300 km from here.

'The elephant was killed near a water body. It received two gun shots. The ivory was then extracted with sharp weapons,' said Prafulla Kumar Sahu, a forest guard.

Range Officer Tankadhar Behera said: 'We have lodged a case and started investigation into the matter.'

The Orissa wildlife department Thursday started a survey to determine the number of wild elephants in the state.

According to a 2007 census, there were 1,862 elephants in Orissa. A government report states that over 300 elephants have been killed in the state in the past six years.