COIMBATORE: The 25-year-old male elephant hit by train died without responding to treatment at Chadivayal in Boluvampatti Forest Range on Wednesday night. In three months, the elephant death toll has risen to five in Coimbatore forest division.
The Anti-Poaching Watchers (APW) on Tuesday evening found a cow elephant's carcass in the Pethikuttai forest under the Sirumugai Forest Range. An autopsy report revealed that the 26-year-old jumbo died of cardiac failure triggered by acute anaemia. Though the APW found the carcass of the animal around 5.30 pm on Tuesday, the Sirumugai forest department was unable to engage a veterinarian to perform the autopsy. The next morning, A Sugumar, a Coimbatore forest veterinarian, and veterinarian Thiyagarajan from the Animal Husbandry department conducted the postmortem examination in the presence of Assistant Conservators of Forest M Senthil Kumar and C Dinesh Kumar and Jerald from a non-governmental organisation Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust (WNCT).
Sources said that there were no external injuries found on the animal's body.“The elephant would have died three days ago. The report shows that her intestine was empty as she had not eaten for a few days,” they added. Sources further said that eight wild elephants died of natural causes in Sirumugai Forest Range in 2020.
An official said, “We suspect this elephant too died naturally. She could have been a crop raider before falling sick as similar elephant deaths happened in Pethikuttai forest last year."
Speaking to TNIE, Sugumar said that the animal died of acute anaemia and starvation resulting in cardiac failure. “We found the blood flow to her heart and liver to be very low. The animal might have had blood parasites which led to a loss of haemoglobin count,” he added.
Timeline
January 5: A 20-year-old wild elephant (male) died of electrocution in a paddy field at Semmedu near Iruttupallam Boluvampatti Forest Range
January 28: A 23-year-old female elephant died of anaemia at Pethikuttai in Sirumugai Forest Range.
March 15: A cow elephant calf died after slipping from a height of 15 feet while grazing at Boluvampatti Block II in Coimbatore Forest Range.