COIBATORE: A wild elephant, fondly called ‘Chillikomban’ by the people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, accidentally fell into the contour canal near Aliyar in the Pollachi forest range on Saturday evening and died after being washed away in the strong currents.
The animal’s body was retrieved only on Sunday morning, as the carcass had travelled inside the 49-km-long contour canal, which ends at the Thirumurthy dam.
Animal lovers in Tamil Nadu and Kerala mourned the death, as ‘Chillikomban’ had been moving between Navamalai near Pollachi in Tamil Nadu and Nelliyampathy in Kerala.
The elephant was nicknamed ‘Chillikomban’ as its tusks resembled green chillies. Though the total depth of the canal is 20 feet, water was filled up to 16 feet when the animal accidentally fell into it while attempting to drink water. The contour canal under the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) irrigates more than four lakh acres of agricultural land in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts.