Elephant found dead near Thoomanur

Coimbatore: A female elephant, which was aged around 50 years, was found dead near Thoomanur on Saturday. With this, 19 elephants have died in the district so far this year due to various reasons.
According to forest department officials, the carcass, which was in a partially decomposed state, was first spotted by people from Thoomanur tribal settlement when they went to the forest to graze the cattle. “They immediately alerted us.”
Forest department field staff and veterinarians subsequently examined the carcass and conducted postmortem. The carcass was later left in the reserve forest for scavengers.
An official said an elephant calf was found dead in the same locality on August 18.
Meanwhile, the forest department has started treating the makhna (tuskless male elephant), which the Kerala forest department had tranquilized a couple of days ago and treated for its wound in the mouth after it entered their territory on August 16.
They released the elephant, which is nicknamed bulldozer, back into the forest after keeping it under observation for 18 hours. The elephant then moved towards the Coimbatore forest range.
On Thursday, the elephant was spotted in Narasipuram area of Boluvampatti forest range. “Immediately, we formed a special team to monitor the animal, which is in Vettaikaran Kovil area of Narasipuram forest section,” an official said.
As per the advice of forest veterinary officer Dr Sukumar, medicines are being given to the elephant. “We placed rice and maize flour that were mixed with powdered tablets, and bananas and watermelon on its pathway. The elephant has taken all the food,” the officer said.
D Venkatesh, district forest officer, said medicines would be provided to the elephant at regular intervals until it recovers from the wound.