The male elephant that was found battling for its life with serious injuries in its mouth, died on Wednesday in a tea estate in Kannampalli in Pandalur taluk.
This is the third reported death of an elephant in the vicinity in the last one month, all with similar injuries.
Evironment activists believe that it is the fallout of an orchestrated campaign against animals using country-made explosives.
Forest veterinarian N.S. Manoharan said that the injuries seem to confirm suspicions that the animal aged around 12 sustained injuries from an explosive.
“The lower mandible of the animal was completely blown off, suggesting a tremendous explosive force,” said Mr. Manoharan, who performed a post-mortem examination on the remains on Wednesday.
This is the third elephant death in the area in the last one month. N. Arun Shankar, an environment activist said that all the three animals that died recently, including a female elephant at Cherambadi a few weeks back, and a calf, had very similar injuries to their jaw, indicating the use of country-made explosives, possibly by local landholders or those residing along the border in Kerala, from where the elephants could have reached Pandalur.
Forest Department officials said that the animal would have suffered tremendously for over a two-week period, before finally collapsing in the tea estate on Tuesday.
The wound it sustained could have occurred around 14 days ago, and the nature of the injuries suggests that the explosive was not meant for smaller variety of fauna, but to intentionally harm much larger animals, like elephants, said a local conservationist, who called for an investigation into the deaths of animals.