NILGIRIS: The decomposed carcass of a female elephant, aged around 40 years, was found in Kumbaarakolli Reserve Forest of Theppakkadu Forest Range on Saturday evening. However, a postmortem carried out on Sunday could not reveal the cause of the death.
The postmortem revealed that the animal may have died ten days ago as the carcass was in a decomposed state.
A forest official said that the carcass was found deep inside the forest, and they could not conduct regular patrolling duty due to incessant rain in May. As a result, they could not find out about the carcass at the early stage, after the elephant’s death.
"Since some of the elephant’s flesh was consumed by carnivores, we have not buried or burnt the leftover carcass after the postmortem. We could not exactly predict the cause of the death since the carcass was putrefied, and we believe it was a natural death since carnivores have consumed the flesh,” the official added.
Sources said this is the first elephant death reported in the range this year.
Jumbos enter human habitats
Three wild elephants entered a residential area in Paadanthorai near Gudalur on Saturday night. The forest department has advised people to avoid taking pictures and videos of the animal by approaching it. "We have found that people, especially youth, wait on terraces and street corners to shoot videos of the wild animals that enter residential habitats. We have warned them, and we will file a case against them if they continue to disturb the animal," a forest official said.