COIMBATORE: A male wild elephant was severely injured on its head, after being hit by a train near Navakkarai coming under the Madukkarai forest range in Coimbatore in the wee hours on Monday.
The incident happened, when the animal was returning to forest after quenching it's thirst at Walayar river located on Tamil Nadu-Kerala border was hit by Chennai bound Trivandrum Express (Train no 02696) train coming from Kerala near 506/A-9 track in Solakkarai forest best in Madukkarai forest range at 1.30 am on Monday.
Group of forest front line workers, who were already engaged in diverting another herd of wild elephants inside the forest heading to Puthupathi reached the spot and informed the range officer B Srinivasan
"The animal got injured on his head and back and laid five meter away from the track. We have engaged former Joint Director of Animal Husbandry department NS Manokaran treating the animal," said Coimbatore DFO D Venkatesh.
DFO said that painkillers and antibiotics injections were administered to the animal to revive him.