A 25-year-old tusker was found dead after getting stuck in a swamp encroached on by a farmer at Manvayal in Gudalur Forest Division on Friday.
Forest officials said that the elephant had got trapped in the loose sand, which had become extremely dangerous due to the rains in the regions over the last few weeks.
The animal is believed to have entered the farm in Manvayal as it was traversing between the scattered patches of reserve forest in the Gudalur division, and had gotten stuck.
After it got stuck in the swamp, it was unable to extricate itself from it and died on Friday.
District Forest Officer, Gudalur division, Sumesh Soman, rushed to the spot and conducted preliminary investigations into the death, and a postmortem is to be conducted on Saturday.
Officials believe that the animal could have suffocated to death after getting trapped in the swamp and it was not spotted due to the thick growth of crops and plantations in the land in which it died.
Erode
In Erode, a male elephant aged about 35 was found electrocuted near a farmland in Bargur Forest Range.
On Friday morning, villagers at Oosimalai found the carcass near a farm and alerted the officials. The elephant had come into contact with an electric fence put up around a farm by the farmer S. Madesh (50) of Oosimalai. Officials said that the farmer, who had fled the spot, had drawn power for the fence from domestic supply leading to the death of the animal.
A team led by K. Ashokan, wildlife veterinarian of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, performed autopsy. A case was registered and search is on for the farmer.
