An 18-year-old male elephant was found dead in the Theppakadu Forest Range in the core zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) on Wednesday.
N Rajendran, Forest Range Officer, Theppakadu, said that following the discovery of the carcass, information was passed onto top forest officials, who visited the site on Thursday to ascertain the cause of the death of the elephant.
Mr. Rajendran said that based on preliminary investigations, the deceased elephant had sustained serious injuries, probably as a result of fighting with another elephant in the area. “We suspect, based on the injuries that the elephant had fought with another male elephant, possibly to mate with another female, leading to it sustaining serious injuries,” said Mr. Rajendran.
Though the Field Director and Deputy Director of the tiger reserve visited the area to investigate the death of the animal, no post-mortem was performed on the carcass of the animal as there was no veterinarian available to conduct the procedure. Officials said that a permanent veterinarian was yet to be posted in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. As a result, a veterinarian from the animal husbandry department will be asked to perform the post-mortem on the carcass on Friday.
They said that the cause of death can only be confirmed once the post-mortem was conducted, adding that the carcass would be left for scavengers, if the forest department was able to confirm if it died naturally.
