COIMBATORE: In the fifth elephant death in Coimbatore district in 15 days, a 30-year-old cow elephant was found dead on Tuesday morning at Moongil Pallam near Narasipuram, around 30 km from the city.
In a heart-rending sight, forest officials and local people observed its calf trying to 'awaken' the dead mother. The calf, a male, could be seen shedding tears and touching its mother's foot with its trunk to 'wake' her up.
A large number of people had gathered there in large numbers to see the grieving calf, and the the Forest staff had a tough time in controlling them.
Till evening, the calf had refused to go away and was moving around its mother's body, because of which Forest Department staff could not go near the carcass.
“We decided not to engage the Kumki, Paari, to drive away the calf. It is expected to move away by night, when it starts feeling the smell of decay from the carcass,” said Coimbatore DFO (in charge) A Periyasamy.
A team from the Animal Husbandry Department will carry out a postmortem on Wednesday. Only after that can the exact cause of its death be known. Forest officials believe it died due to poor health, as no injury marks could be on the carcass.
They had been monitoring the movement of the mother and calf for three days, after locals informed them of their presence in the area.
“The mother and calf were seen roaming around near a sugarcane field at Thondamuthur on Friday morning. We stayed at the Narasipuram quarters to drive them away. But they did not create any damage in the area," said a Forest Department employee who did not want to be named.
"On Tuesday morning, we were informed by a farmer the that they were roaming through farm fields in Narasipuram. We drove them away around 6.30 am. However, the cow elephant was found dead within four hours,” he said, adding, “On observing the elephant's weak state while walking, we asked Animal Husbandry officials to treat it. Unfortunately, it died around 10.30 am.”
The last two weeks were very sad for wildlife lovers due to number of elephants deaths for various reasons. Since June 20, five elephants, two females and three males, have died in Coimbatore district.
* June 20: A 35-year-old female elephant was killed in a train accident at Marappalam, near Madukkarai.
* June 22: A 20-year-old lone tusker ‘Madukkarai Maharaj’ died in a kraal where it had been kept after being tranquillised and captured.
* June 25: A 30-year-old tusker found dead. It is suspected to have died due to bullet injuries.
* July 3: A 25-year-old male elephant found dead due to parasitic infection in the Bhavanisagar dam backwater area.