NILGIRIS: A 40-year-old tusker died following a fight with another elephant at Thorapalli in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) on Thursday morning. The animal’s carcass was found inside the reserve forest, 100 metres from the Karkudi-Thorapalli road at 8 am during a patrol by field level staff. A postmortem was carried out by veterinary assistant surgeon K Rajesh Kumar. “We suspect the animal suffered severe injuries to the head and other parts after a fight with another animal, which could have occurred two days ago. The animal was weak and died due to severe blood loss,” said a forest department official.
Meanwhile, a 58-year-old woman, N Santhamani, was killed by a gaur at Kembanur on Wednesday evening. It attacked her when she was grazing goats. Residents demanded the forest department to take steps to prevent human-wildlife conflict. After official assurance, they allowed the forest department and police to take the body for postmortem. Boluvampatti forest range officials have provided compensation to the kin of the deceased.