The wild tusker that was nicknamed Madukkarai Maharaj and trapped by the Forest Department in Coimbatore in the small hours of Sunday breathed its last on Tuesday evening at the Varagliar elephant camp.
Officials said that the cause of death could be ascertained only after conducting a post-mortem. After it was ‘trapped’, the tusker was lodged inside a ‘kraal’, a cage made of iron beams and wooden logs at the camp in Anamalai Tiger Reserve.
Till Monday night, despite having been administered an antidote against the tranquilliser, the tusker was said to be in a slightly sedated condition.
On Tuesday, the tusker is said to have made efforts to break out of the kraal. In the process, it is suspected to have sustained head injuries and died. ‘Maharaj’ is the second elephant to die in Coimbatore district in as many days. On Monday, a lactating female elephant was fatally knocked down by a train near Madukkarai.
Reacting to the tragic death of the pachyderm, Umesh Marudhachalam, a wildlife enthusiast, said officials could have adopted a wait-and-watch approach instead of rushing to trap the animal.
The operation should also be reviewed to see whether the exercise cost the animal its life, he added.
K. Kalidasan, president of Osai, an NGO, said the death is a great setback to conservation efforts given the unfavourable male-female elephant population ratio of 1:25.
(With inputs from M. Soundariya Preetha)
