Two elephants were found dead in the Nilgiris in separate incidents on Thursday.
In the first instance, a female elephant was found dead in the Sigur Forest Range, in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. Forest department officials said post-mortem would be performed on the remains of the animal on Thursday to ascertain the cause of death.
In another case, a male elephant, believed to be around 15 years old, was found dead in the Cherambadi Forest Range in the Gudalur Forest Division. The elephant was being monitored by the Forest Department for many days after it was found to have been injured.
Speaking to The Hindu, V.C. Rahul, District Forest Officer, Gudalur Division, said that after the forest staff were alerted to the presence of the animal, they began monitoring it to find ways to treat the injuries. “However, the animal made its way into a thick portion of a reserve forest, and it became extremely difficult for us to track its movements, and dangerous too,” said Mr. Rahul.
The recent deaths of three elephants in the Pandalur region, believed to have been caused by explosives placed in fruits by locals, had raised the suspicion that this elephant too could have been injured this way. Forest department officials, however, ruled this out and said that a post-mortem on Friday would help establish the cause of death.