BENGALURU: Vinayagan, a tusker, popularly known as Akki Raja, suddenly collapsed to death in Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BTR), Ramapura elephant camp area on Tuesday.
BTR Director Ramesh Kumar told The New Indian Express that the animal suddenly collapsed to death. The veterinarian and other forest staffers present on site tried all measures to revive the tusker. But all options failed.
Forest department officials were also planning to train the tusker to be the next Mysuru Dasara, howdah elephant.
The tusker was captured in Coimbatore in 2021 and released in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. Since it was raiding houses in search of rice in Yelchetty village in Bandipur, it was again captured by the Karnataka Forest Department in June 2023 and confined in a kraal in Ramapura camp.
Kumar added that a post-mortem will be conducted on Wednesday morning to ascertain the exact cause.