Male captive elephant dies, Theppakkadu camp closed

A male elephant attached to the Theppakkadu elephant camp of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris died here on Monday. The elephant, Bharathi, was one of the three elephants brought to the Theppakkadu camp from Tiruvannamalai in 2013.

Autopsy

Forest Department officials said an autopsy will be performed by a team of veterinarians on the elephant on Tuesday.

Officials of the MTR are planning to shift all the trained elephants to another place as a precautionary measure.

“All the 23 elephants, kumkis and those used for safari, will be shifted from Theppakkadu and Bombax camps to another place temporarily. The shifting will be done from Monday night. Theppakkadu camp and safari in MTR are have been temporarily closed,” said E. A. Saravanan, Deputy Director, MTR.

Bharati and two other elephants, Krishna and Narmada, were part of a six-member elephant herd captured by Forest Department officials from Tiruvannamalai after repeated incidents of straying into villages and damaging crops. Krishna had died of diarrhoea in November this year.

While a male tusker and two female elephants of the herd were sent to Topslip, Krishna and Bharathi, then calves, were brought to Theppakkadu along with female elephant Narmada.

Separate kraals were built for the three elephants at Bombax camp where mahouts trained them.