A tusker aged between 15 and 18 was found dead in an abandoned government land near Uduvare in Sakleshpur taluk. The carcass, which was in a decomposed state, was noticed on Saturday and the post-mortem was conducted on Sunday. The tusks, 50 cm in length, were intact. Officers suspect that the death could be due to injuries during infighting.
Two herds, totalling around 30, were noticed around estates in the area in the past 10 to 12 days. Rapid response teams of the Forest Department had monitored the movement.
No bullets
“As the herds were active in the area, we could notice the death only on Saturday. The carcass was in a decomposed state and it must have died five to seven days before,” said K.N. Basavaraj, Deputy Conservator of Forests.
Dr. Ravi Kumar, Head of the Department of Pathology and Dr. Sagar, veterinarian, conducted the post-mortem on Sunday. They utilised metal detectors at three stages of the post-mortem to detect if there were any bullets in the body.
“There were no bullets. And also there was no injury caused by the entry of a bullet. The doctors noticed deep cavities around its neck. It could be due to infighting. As a tusker in the herd is in musth , it must have suffered injuries in a fight,” he said.The samples collected from the carcass have been sent to a laboratory to ascertain if the death was due to poisoning.
Three jumbo deaths
This is the third elephant to have been found dead this year in Hassan district. A female elephant was found dead with a bullet injury on January 3. The post-mortem reported that it died of septicaemia. “The animal had a bullet injury. However, it was noticed that it moved around even after sustaining the injury. Doctors reported that it could have died because of septicaemia,” he said. The officers registered a case and interrogated around 35 people in this connection.
A tusker was found dead on February 28 near Borannamane in Sakleshpur taluk. It was aged between 55 and 60. “In this case, the death was owing to natural causes. It was aged. However, two tusks were missing. It is suspected that some people took out the tusks from the carcass. We are investigating the case,” the officer said.
There have been repeated incidents of man-elephant conflict in parts of Sakleshpur, Yeslur, and Alur ranges..
