Coimbatore: Wild elephant deaths are on the rise in the Coimbatore forest division.
While 12 elephants were found dead last year in the Madukkarai, Boluvampatti, Coimbatore, Periyanaickenpalayam, Karamadai, Mettupalayam and Sirumugai forest ranges, 19 died till September 17 this year.
“While eight elephants were found dead in the Sirumugai forest range, five were found in Mettupalayam, two each in Boluvampatti and Periyanaickenpalayam ranges and one each in Karamadai and Coimbatore ranges,” a forest department official said. “While seven female elephants died last year, 11 have died this year. Most of the death were reported from Sirumugai, Coimbatore and Mettupalayam forest ranges.”
Not all of them were natural deaths, district forest officer D Venkatesh said. “We arrested two farmers for shooting a wild elephant to death in the Mettupalayam forest range. Some elephants died due to ageing, some died following fight with other elephants. We provided medical care to many sick elephants. But we cannot check deaths due to infighting, heat stress and accidents,” he told TOI.
In 2019, seven female and five male elephants died due to electrocution, diseases and starvation in the division. Five of them were found dead in Coimbatore forest range, two each in Madukkarai, Mettupalayam and Periyanaickenpalayam forest ranges and one in Sirumugai forest range.
While 14 men and four women were killed by wild elephants last year in the division, 10 men and two women were killed till September 23 this year. Nine people were killed in the Coimbatore forest range last year, six in Boluvampatti, two people in Periyanaickenpalayam and one each in Sirumugai and Madukkarai forest ranges. Four people were killed in Boluvampatti range this year, three in the Coimbatore range, two each in Periyanaickenpalayam and Sirumugai ranges and one in the Mettupalayam range.
An expert committee is studying elephant deaths in Pethikuttai in Sirumugai forest range, Venkatesh said. “Based on the study report, we will take necessary steps to check the deaths. We had requested people staying on the forest fringes not to go out of their houses late at night and early morning. The elephants had attacked workers of the brick kiln units at Thadagam, who had ventured out at night to answer nature’s call. We have requested brick kiln unit owners to provide toilet facilities to their workers to prevent man-animal conflict,” he said.
The department has created seven WhatsApp groups to curb man-animal conflict in the division, assistant conservator of forests M Senthilkumar said. “As soon as we get information about wild elephants from farmers and villagers who are members of the groups, our teams chase them back to the reserve forest,” he said.