Injured makhna ‘Bulldozer’ found dead on Kerala border

Coimbatore: After almost three weeks of being tracked and treated intermittently by forest officials in Coimbatore and Palakkad, an injured makhna elephant was found dead 6 km into the Kerala border on Wednesday morning.
Nicknamed ‘Bulldozer’ because of its penchant for damaging houses, the 25-year-old tuskless elephant was found motionless on the side of the Anaikatti-Sholayar Road in Kerala. In July this year, it had damaged over 20 houses in Palakkad district.
Officials said there was a large injury on its tongue that may have resulted in an infection. “The cause of the tongue injury is not clear, because a country bomb will affect at least one side of the elephant’s teeth and cheek, which is not there. It must be due to a fight or an infection,” said a forest department official.
“It entered Coimbatore at Devarayapuram in mid-August from Sholayur, and from there moved to Marudhamalai, Mankarai, Thadagam and then crossed over into Kerala again,” said district forest officer D Venkatesh. “It destroyed three houses in Devarayapuram and Marudhamalai during its first foray,” he said. The injury on its tongue had already occurred by then.
On August 24, the ailing male elephant was tranquilised by the Mannarkkad forest division officials in Kerala after they found its tongue damaged. They cleaned its wounds, administered antibiotics and sent it back into the forest.
It re-entered Coimbatore border in the first week of September and was found roaming around Devarayapuram, Marudhamalai, Thadagam, Kanuvai, Nanjundapuram, 24 Veerapandi, Mankarai, Anaikatti and the Periyanaickenpalayam range. The forest department was giving daily updates to people to stay indoors as the elephant had damaged six houses in its second foray into the district.
The elephant had crossed over into forest areas of Kerala on Tuesday, officials said. A postmortem will give a better clue on the exact cause of its death, they said.