COIMBATORE: A 25-year-old tusker was electrocuted on a patta land at Veerapandi village near Thadagam forest on Tuesday evening.
The carcass was found beneath a transformer on land owned by Arul Anthony. The carcass was noticed by the staff at 3.30 p m on Tuesday. Although the carcass was recovered on Tuesday evening, forest officials were unable to conduct a postmortem due to limited daylight and the time required for the procedure. The postmortem has been scheduled on Wednesday.
Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) D Venkatesh, and Coimbatore Forest Division’s District Forest Officer (DFO) N Vengatesh Prabhu inspected the site.
Forest department officials believe the elephant died due to electrocution and the incident may have occurred two to three days earlier, as the carcass was found in a swollen state.
According to sources, the area surrounding the site consisted of barren land extending nearly two kilometres, making it unclear why the elephant approached the transformer.
“Elephants usually keep away from high-tension power lines after sensing the sound they emit. However, in this case, the animal appears to have come into contact with a power line connected to the 16-kW transformer.
We are able to confirm the death due to electrocution since the electric pole got damaged after the elephant fell over it. However, we are still unable to determine why the elephant approached the transformer,” sources added.
