NILGIRIS: Officials of the Singara forest range of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) commenced an inquiry into the disappearance of two tusks of a male elephant, which is aged 45 to 50 years, on Wednesday.
The forest managers came to know of the missing tusks only on Tuesday, nearly four months after its death at a patta land near Bokkapuram forest, which is a known place for movements of wild elephants. The reserve forest is located just 700 meters from a resort, and a river is also located nearby.
“We strongly suspect a staff (caretaker) of the Gem Park private resort, who asked our anti-poaching watchers not to carry out patrolling in the estate, citing that it is private land, three months ago. Our staff also did not inform us about it. The resort staff have also been missing for the last two days. We came to know about the death of the animal through a few workers who went to remove bamboo in the same land as they noticed bones and a skull, etc., on Tuesday morning. We reached this private land on Tuesday evening,” said a forest department official.
On Wednesday morning, K Rajesh Kumar Theppakkadu, an assistant veterinary surgeon, in the presence of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) Deputy Director P Arun Kumar, along with members from an NGO, visited the spot and carried out a postmortem.
“In case of poaching, the sockets could have been damaged. Considering the available evidence at the spot, there were high chances that the animal did not die due to an injury, and it could have died naturally. We suspect the tusks were retrieved only after the death of the animal, since both the tusk sockets of the animal have not been damaged. The issue did not come to light initially since there is only one caretaker for the entire park, which is spread over 10 acres. We have collected tissue samples and dung samples for further analysis,” said P Arun Kumar.