THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The death of Thanneerkomban, the wild elephant captured from Mananthavady, in the wee hours of Saturday, has raised major questions over the alleged lapses on the part of forest officials. Forest Minister A K Saseendran has ordered a probe by a five-member team into the tusker’s death.
The radio-collared wild tusker -- which strayed into Kerala from the forests in Karnataka -- was tranquillised and captured by state forest officials on Friday evening. The tusker died after it was taken to Bandipur. As per the preliminary findings of the postmortem, the tusker died of a heart attack caused by stress.
According to the veterinary surgeons, there was a tumour on the elephant’s body and it was infected. There was also swelling in the lungs and a wound on its reproductive organ. The postmortem was conducted by a joint team of veterinary surgeons from Karnataka and Kerala at the Ramapura Elephant Camp in Karnataka.
Wildlife experts are irked that despite being aware that the elephant, in its 20s, was tranquillised just 18 days ago by Karnataka forest officials, a decision was taken to dart it again on Friday without checking its health condition.
A top elephant expert, on condition of anonymity, raised serious aspersions against the forest officials who were involved in the mission to capture the elephant from Mananthavady.
Exhausted tusker should not have been darted: expert
He alleged that since the officials were aware that the animal had neither eaten nor drunk anything for the whole day, it should not have been tranquillised.
“The veterinarian who fired the tranquilliser shots should have evaluated the elephant’s health so that the abscess wound would not have gone unnoticed. The veterinarian must have been under tremendous stress from the authorities, public and the visual media who had actually triggered such a frenzy. The exhausted tusker should not have been darted in the evening which was against the principle as it’s not easy to track its movement in the night,” the expert told TNIE.
He said he has been told by his Karnataka counterparts that there were TB nodules, which could also have resulted in its death.
Dr Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan, a scientist and behavioural ecologist on elephants, who had worked along with Thanneerkomban until 2020 under the Karnataka forest department, told TNIE that the tusker was known to be very docile.
He said the elephant was released into Bandipur as it was not a problematic animal, one that avoided human habitats.
Currently working for the welfare of the elephants in Sri Lanka, Sreedhar said Thanneerkomban had wandered into Mananthavady in a bid to find a potential habitat. “It had wandering instincts as he was a young elephant who had exploratory tendencies,” said Sreedhar.
Forest Minister A K Saseendran said a scientific investigation will be conducted by an expert team to probe whether there were any lapses.
“We received the information that the elephant, which was brought from Mananthavady to Bandipur, died while it was about to undergo an expert examination. A five-member expert committee, including an IFS officer, veterinary doctor, NGO representative, legal expert and DFO flying squad, has been appointed to probe whether there were any lapses in the incident,” the minister said.
He, however, refuted the allegations about the delay in treating the elephant after sedating it. “It is not appropriate to speculate things at this stage. The cause of death will become clear once the detailed postmortem report comes,” he said.
On Friday, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests D Jayaprasad had ordered the elephant to be caught and released in Bandipur forest after efforts to chase away the animal failed. After a 17-and-a-half-hour-long mission, Thanneerkomban was captured after being tranquillised. The first shot was fired at 5.35pm and the booster dose was given at 7.10pm.
After being sedated, the animal was pushed into an elephant ambulance with the help of three Kumki elephants by 10.30pm. Later, it was taken to Ramapura.
“We need to clarify the cause of death and whether the health issues occurred after it was sedated. There is speculation that the jumbo may have been dehydrated or had some other pre-existing medical condition," said Shajna A, Divisional Forest Officer, South Wayanad Division.
