COIMBATORE: A seven-year-old female elephant died after falling from a slope at Dhonimudi estate in Manombolly forest range of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR). Forest department sources said the elephant may have died two or three days ago and field-level staff spotted the carcass on Monday evening.
Postmortem examination was conducted on Tuesday by Coimbatore forest veterinary officer A Sukumar and E Vijayaragavan, forest veterinary assistant surgeon of ATR.
“We suspect the elephant fell down from a slope in the Shoal forest. The animal had a primary illness of acute nephritis, and there were marks that the animal was dragged 15m in the slope into sternal recumbency, resulting in pulmonary-cardiac failure and death,” an officer said.
“The incident may have occurred two days ago. Scratch injuries and mild lacerated wounds were noticed on the left lateral abdominal regions, knee joints, and hind limbs,” he added.
Samples of the internal organ were sent for the histopathological examination to find out the cause of illness. The carcass was left in the open for scavenger animals to feed upon.