COIMBATORE: Postmortem examination of the female elephant calf, which drowned in a ground level water tank at a farmhouse in the foothills of Palamalai, on Wednesday revealed that the animal could have died four days ago. The incident came to light on Tuesday evening after a labourer in the farm, which is allegedly owned by Abarajitha, found the carcass following foul smell.
Forest department officials said the incident could have happened on Saturday night or Sunday morning when the calf entered the farm, which is 200 m from Thadagam reserve forest, along with its mother and other elephants in search of food and water.
The tank is eight-feet deep and was filled with five feet of water when the animal fell into it. The calf fell through a two-feet open manhole of the tank. Two elephants, out of a herd of ten, entered the farm on Tuesday night, following the calf’s death. Periyanaickenpalayam forest range officer S Selvaraj said, “We could not identify the mother elephant in the two herd and we diverted them inside the forest when they tried entering the farm on Tuesday night. Another herd also visited the same farmhouse. After noticing them, our staff diverted them inside the Palamalai forest.”
Sources said workers in the farm used to keep the manhole open so that elephants, which frequent the area, can quench thirst. The forest department officials have demolished the concrete structure of the water tank and levelled the structure to prevent such incidents in future. The postmortem examination was carried out by Coimbatore Forest Veterinary Officer, Periyanaickenpalayam (PNP) forest Sukumar with the help of veterinary surgeons PN Ramnath of PNP and M Vetrivel of Govanur.
“The animal was aged between one to two months. There were bruises on the neck and legs of the animal. It suffocated to death because of drowning. All its internal organs were in the state of very active putrefaction, so the samples for histopathological examination were not collected,” said an official. S Ramasubramanian, Conservator of forest, Coimbatore district, said, “Since the elephant movement is increasing, we are planning to construct one more water tank exclusively for wild animals to quench their thirst.”