TIRUPUR: In yet another incident of elephant death in the Western part of the state, a female elephant aged about twenty years has been found dead at the Amaravathi forest range in Tirupur district on Friday morning. The location where the animal was found dead is a water spread area of the Amaravathi reservoir, in the Kombu East Beat of Amaravathi section of the forest range.
The carcass of the elephant was found at a distance of about 200 metre from the Punganodai Bridge at the Udumalaipettai to Munnar Highway.
“As the mammary glands have gum-like secretions, it appears, prima facie, that the animal is pregnant. The animal might have consumed high quantum of prosopis pods in the available in the locality which would have lead the fatal toxins to the foetus. However, the exact cause of the death will be known only after autopsy,” said A Periyasamy, District Forest Officer of Tirupur and Deputy Director of the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve, after visiting the spot on information.
Though water facilities have been made for the animals in the wild, by the forest department, the drought has caused a shortage of feed to the elephants in the Udumalaipettai and Amaravathi forest regions in the district. Prosopis feed are among the limited options available for the elephants for food.
This is the first incident of elephant death reported in Tirupur district in 2017. The earlier incident of reported on December 2016, when a female elephant, aged around thirty years, was found dead near the Esalthattu tribal settlement in the same forest range. Dehydration was found to be the reason for the death of the animal.