Tusker tranquillized to treat leg injury dies

Coimbatore: The tusker that was tranquillized to provide treatment to its injured leg on Monday was found dead in a dried-up stream at Kondanur village near Anaikatti forest area on Tuesday early morning.

The elephant was first spotted at Kondanur village on Friday. When villagers alerted, forest department officials reached the spot and found a swelling on the animal's front leg. When the officials tried to provide treatment, the elephant resisted.

Subsequently, forest department veterinarians darted the elephant with antibiotic and provided food mixed with medicines on Saturday. "The animal was fed sugarcane, jaggery and rice mixed with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs. But it often ate only a small quantity of food," an official said.

But, the wound was not cured. On Monday, deputy director of forest veterinarian N S Manoharan and forest veterinarian Ashokan darted the animal with sedative, removed pus from the wound and provided medication.

"The elephant had septicemia and its entire organs were affected. It didn't allow anybody near it. So, forest veterinarians darted the animal with sedatives on Monday," said S Ramasubramanian, conservator of forests, Coimbatore circle.

"The animal might have wounded its leg during infighting," he added.

Later, the elephant could stand and walk. "After the treatment, the animal roamed around Kondanur for some time. We had deployed as many as 30 field staff to monitor the animal," the official added.

However, the elephant was found dead around 3am on Tuesday. N S Manoharan carried out the postmortem and removed the ivories from the carcass. Samples were also collected for laboratory test. After the autopsy, the carcass was buried inside the forest in the afternoon.