Tourism authorities here are seeing it as a huge loss as 'Kublai Khan', the mammoth eight-foot tusker with a gentle heart, was a treat for wildlife photographers, who specially came to Yala National Park in southeast Sri Lanka to capture it on camera.
The elephant, that distinctly stood out among its other herd members, with its gigantic size and friendly visage, died last week and was found by wildlife officials with its carcass stuck in a big pond.
Kublai Khan was on the cover of the Wildlife Nature Protection Society (WNPS) magazine 'Loris' in its 70th anniversary issue in 2006.
Yala National Park has always been a haven for tuskers and for many visitors, Kublai Khan was an exceptional entertainer.
A postmortem has also been conducted to determine the cause of death of the photogenic tusker, which was named after the famous Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan.
