A wild tusker enters Kondanur village on the outskirts of Coimbatore with an abscess in its left foreleg. Forest officials and people swing into action to save its life. Enter Pari and Sujay, kumkis or tamed elephants, from the Chadivayal camp of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department to nudge it to safer ground. What follows is a massive operation that lasts more than a day. But in the end, tragedy strikes.
Facing brickbats for the increasing number of deaths of wild elephants, the Forest Department in Coimbatore wanted to redeem its image by saving the life of the tusker, aged about 25, that the villagers spotted roaming nearby on November 13. After the kumkis drove the tusker from a tough thicket-covered terrain to the plains, an earthmover was positioned to stop it from moving downstream, especially after being sedated.
Conservator of Forests S. Ramasubramanian and District Forest Officer N. Satheesh monitored the operation. Forest veterinarians N.S. Manoharan, K. Asokan and M. Jayabharathi tranquillised the animal with darts. The tusker stood its ground challenging them, and only after a third round of sedation could they get closer. An incision was made on the football-sized abscess to clear puss, dead tissue and dirt.
The elephant responded to treatment and started moving back into the forest in the evening, and the department deputed watchers to track it. But the relief proved short-lived, when the tusker was found dead at 4.30 a.m. on November 14. Clinical examination revealed septicaemia (infection of the blood), and the elephant had become feeble and anaemic with reduced food intake, hastening its death.
Keeping a watch: A forest official tracking an wounded elephant at Kondanur village on the outskirts of Coimbatore on November 13.
Within range: A forest veterinary surgeon getting ready to tranquillise the tusker with a dart to treat an abscess in its left foreleg.
Drug delivery: Ready with healing formulation.
Up close: Treatment begin in right earnest as veterinarians inject drugs into the tusker.
Ball of medicines: A veterinary team readies drugs on a ball of cotton to clean the abscess in the foreleg of the tusker.
Salve in a stick: A forest official applying anti-inflammatory drug on the swollen leg of the tusker.
Medicinal bath: A forest official spraying medicine on the tusker.
Farewell forever: The elephant moving up a dry stream after treatment. The animal died early in the morning of November 14.