COIMBATORE: A year after elephant deaths came down to eight, a three-fourth reduction compared to the 23 deaths recorded in 2023, the number of fatalities has gone up again in the last 10 months to 14 deaths this year. Officials claim that there is no reason to worry, as most deaths have occurred due to natural causes.
A postmortem examination carried out on a tusker on Sunday revealed that the animal had died on Saturday due to enteritis at the Thadagam North forest beat. The examination was carried out by Coimbatore forest veterinarian S Vennila, S Sadasivam of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) and animal husbandry department veterinarian Abilesh of Madathur, in the presence of DFO N Jayaraj, along with the members of an NGO.
“The animal was aged 20 years, and there were no digested particles in the animal’s intestine, indicating that the animal did not take food such as grass and plants, etc, for the last couple of days. Initial findings suggest that the animal could have died due to enteritis, and it could have occurred due to contamination in food, water, or due to any other disease that infected the animal. We will send samples of its heart and kidney for forensic analysis to labs in Coimbatore and Chennai to identify the exact cause of death,” an official from the forest department said.
A senior forest official from the Coimbatore forest division said, “On average, 15 elephants die every year due to natural and unnatural causes. Except for two elephant deaths due to electrocution that were reported on October 23 at Kuppepalayam near Thondamuthur in Boluvampatti forest range and at Mettupalayam forest range on October 29, the remaining deaths are all due to natural causes.