COIMBATORE: Following stiff backlash from the locals to bury the carcass of a four-year-old male elephant that died after getting stuck in slush at Mazhavan Cherampadi in Nilgiris, the forest department on Monday ripped it into several pieces to bury in a nearby locality.
Official sources said it is the first of its kind incident where the carcass of an elephant was cut into several pieces to bury.
The calf died after getting stuck in slush at Mazhavan Cherampadi near Pandalur in Nilgiris on October 2, said sources, adding that a herd of a cow elephant and two adults stood near the carcass and mourned the death of the elephant.
It was only on Sunday that the herd of jumbos moved away from the carcass, thereby enabling the forest department to perform the postmortem examination to ascertain the age, sex, and cause of the death.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, the Forest Range Officer (in-charge) of Cherampadi G Ramakrishnan said the locals opposed the plan to bury the carcass in the spot where the calf died.
He said the villagers cited the presence of a panchayat well in the locality located 300 meters away that might get polluted if the carcass is buried there.
"Following the opposition from the villagers, we cut the carcass into several pieces on Monday to shift it to another nearby locality where we could bury it. The carcass of the calf weighs around one and a half tonnes. It was cut into at least 15 pieces by the staff who carried it for one km braving the rain and buried in a poramboke land," Ramakrishnan added.
The post mortem examination was conducted by forest veterinarian David Mohan in the presence of Gudalur DFO Venkatesh Prabhu and other forest department officials.