A special task force of the Forest Department is tracking a bull elephant allegedly responsible for goring and killing three cow elephants in the past one week in the 925-sq km Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR).
A cow elephant that was seen profusely bleeding on Thursday is in a serious condition.
The incidents are reminiscent of the serial killings of 12 cow elephants during 2009 and 2010 within the reserve. Though it was confirmed that a bull elephant was responsible for those killings, the culprit nicknamed ‘Alpha’ by the Forest Department could not be tracked.
It is not known whether the same tusker is responsible for the latest killings, Sanjayan Kumar, Deputy Director of PTR (East), said.
Mr. Kumar told The Hindu that the post-mortem examinations on the carcasses of the elephants showed that wounds inflicted by the tusks of a bull elephant were responsible for the deaths. The wound dimensions revealed the possibility of tusks of the same size goring the cow elephants.
However, it still could not be conclusively said that the same tusker was responsible for killings the three elephants and badly injuring a fourth one.
While one cow elephant was found dead in the Kozhikanam area, another was found dead near Gavi, both in the PTR (East) area.
The third was found dead at Vamanakulam in the PTR (West) area. The injured cow elephant was passing through Meenar in PTR (East).
Mr. Kumar said the killings of 2009 and 2010 had occurred between February and April. It was February now, and there were fears that such killings would continue in the months ahead if counter measures were not taken.
Such incidents were not out of the ordinary in a wildlife area, he clarified. “It is all very natural in a forest condition,” Mr. Kumar said.
From February, cow elephants are on heat. Some of the males show erratic behaviour, and can be in musth. Preliminary assessments show that spurning the sexual advances of a tusker could have led to the attacks on the cow elephants.
Further action will be taken only after tracking down the bull elephant.
Some forest dwellers have claimed to have seen the killer tusker, and the task force is using their services to track the animal.
There are indications that if the killer tusker is tracked, it can be sedated and its tusks pruned as a preventive measure. No similar killings were reported in the reserve last year or in 2011.
