COIMBATORE: The postmortem on wild elephant ‘Rolex’ on Thursday revealed that the jumbo allegedly died owing to a chronic heart disease on Wednesday, at Manthirimattam in Manombolly forest range near Valparai in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR).
According to Conservator of Forests and ATR field director D Venkatesh, “The veterinary doctors who have carried out the postmortem noticed that hemorrhaging in the heart. The heart disease could have developed eight to 10 months ago and led to the hemorrhage.”
“To find out the exact cause of the death, we are planning to send the samples to five different laboratories, as there is a high chance that the animal may have died due to a viral infection, which would have also led to hemorrhaging in the heart.
The animal is aged, more than 50 years since the sixth molar came out. Except for the liver, which is usually soft but hard for Rolex, all other organs are fine, and it’s purely a chronic heart disease, and no other reason for the death,” he said.
The official said that they have retrieved four litres of fluid, which was stuck between the heart and pericardium (which protects the heart), that led to failure in pumping blood to the heart.
“Actually the animal did not slip. There are no external injuries, and the animal faced difficulties in walking 15m on a slope soon after sudden cardiomyopathy. It then dashed into the tree and fell on the ground again. Our staff, who were monitoring the animal at a long distance, did not approach the animal, thinking that the animal would revive. However, the animal died 50m close to the stream,” said Venkatesh.
The postmortem was conducted by forest veterinary officer (Coimbatore) Dr Vennila and assistant veterinary surgeon (Madurai) Dr Kalaivanan along with a veterinarian from Valparai in the presence of NGOs.
The chief wildlife warden has also constituted an independent fact finding team. Explaining about the size and weight gain of the animal when it was relocated to Manthirimattam forest, the official said the animal was consuming agricultural crops in the surroundings of Thondamuthur, apart from grass, bark, etc.