For over 50 years, Nadodi Ganesan co-existed peacefully among the hundreds of human settlements in the O-Valley and Bitherkad forest ranges of Gudalur and Pandalur. On Friday, the elephant’s luck finally ran out.
The makhna or tusk-less elephant, known for becoming so acclimatised to living near humans that locals even fed it, died after getting stuck in a sewage pit in Kurinji Nagar in the O-Valley Forest Range.
Forest Department officials said that the elephant, believed to be among the oldest in the region, aged between 50 and 55 years, had entered the settlement late on Thursday.
Locals said that the animal was being chased back into the forest to prevent it from damaging houses and crops when one of its front legs got stuck in the sewage pit.
V.C. Rahul, District Forest Officer (Gudalur Division), said that when forest staff arrived, the animal had a faint pulse, and by the time efforts were mounted to try and rescue the animal using an earth mover, it had died from its injuries.
David Mohan, a veterinarian from the Animal Husbandry Department, performed an autopsy on the animal. Forest department officials confirmed that the elephant died from an injury to the chest.
Forest staff, locals and conservationists who have worked with the elephant and lived alongside it voiced their sadness. C. Manoharan, Forest Range Officer, Bitherkad Range, who was part of the effort to treat Nadodi Ganesan a few months ago when it got injured, said that there was a great feeling of loss among local staff who had grown attached to the animal.
“We were tracking its movements a few months ago, when the animal moved away from its home range in Bitherkad and went to O-Valley. We expected Nadodi Ganesan to return later this year and were preparing to endure some sleepless nights to try and chase him away from entering farmlands in the area,” he added.
‘Biggest’ in the region
Tarsh Thekaekara, a conservationist from the Shola Trust, said that Nadodi Ganesan had become synonymous with the landscape. “Even now, if you look for pictures of human-animal conflict in Gudalur online, chances are that you will stumble upon a photo of Nadodi Ganesan. Almost everyone in the region knows him, as he is also the biggest elephant in the landscape, standing at just over 10 feet,” said Mr. Thekaekara.
Forest department staff buried the carcass of the animal after completion of the autopsy.