The Forest Department has registered a case and started investigation into the death of a wild elephant due to injuries caused by a country-made bomb in the Coimbatore Forest Division.
District Forest Officer T.K. Ashok Kumar told The Hindu a case under Section 9 (prohibition of hunting) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, had been registered.
“As per the post-mortem findings, the elephant died of injuries caused by the explosion of a country-made bomb in its mouth. The case was registered based on the autopsy findings,” he said.
The female elephant aged between 30 and 32 died on Sunday, two days after it was captured for treatment from a village near Karamadai in Coimbatore district. The elephant was captured after the field staff noticed that it was not eating fodder nor drinking water. Though the animal was shifted to a kraal (wooden enclosure) at the Varagaliar elephant camp of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, it did not respond to treatment.
The autopsy of the elephant done on Monday revealed that its right lower jaw and one of the molar plates had fractures, after biting into a country-made explosive (avittukai). These injuries prevented the animal from chewing fodder. Its tongue also had a cut in the middle, due to which the animal was unable to swallow and drink water. The starvation led to severe malnutrition and subsequently to death.
The DFO said a special team had been formed to investigate how and where the elephant got injured, after biting into a country-made explosive. The special team would conduct extensive investigation covering vulnerable areas that were known for the activities of poachers.
As the Karamadai forest range, where the elephant was found injured, is a part of the Nilambur–Silent Valley–Coimbatore elephant population range, movement of elephants from other parts is a natural phenomenon. This elephant population range is also connected to the Brahmagiri–Nilgiris–Eastern Ghats elephant population range.
With some of the field staff saying that they had not noticed the elephant in Karamadai forest range limits in the recent past, the Department is also checking whether it had moved to the Coimbatore Forest Division limits from other jurisdictions.
