The internal injury suffered by a wild elephant at Sholayur in Attappady continued to be critical even as the tuskless male bull razed yet another hut on Sunday night.
The elephant has suffered serious wounds in its mouth reaching deep into the throat apparently after biting on an explosive. It has not eaten or drunk since it suffered the wound over a week ago.
Even as a large team of forest officials kept watch over the wounded elephant over the last week, it destroyed a portion of the house of Ponnu Sami and Kali at Chavadiyur on Sunday night.
The animal took out the Onam food kits kept in the kitchen and tried to eat it. However, it could not eat anything because of the wound. Forest officials drove away the elephant nicknamed ‘bulldozer’ back into the forest.
“It can’t run; it can’t eat; and it’s getting weaker day by day. But it continues its habit of raiding huts in search of food. It’s a rare type of bull that we have seen. The injury to its internal organs is giving us jitters,” said K.T. Udayan, Agali Forest Range Officer.
Although the forest officials gave easily chewable bananas and other fruit, the elephant could not eat them. After Sunday night’s raid, the animal remained in Bommmamudi forest in Agali range of Mannarkkad forest division.
Forest Veterinary Officer Arun Zacharia, who treated the elephant after tranquilizing it on Saturday, said that its tongue was torn and the “snorkel valve” badly damaged.
“The deep wound inside is acute and it cannot be stitched. A surgical intervention is nearly impossible. And there’s a high chance of food regurgitated from the stomach going inside the lungs, and thus developing pneumonia,” said Dr. Zacharia.
Optimism lacked in the words of Dr. Zacharia, whose team of vets continued to monitor the animal. “The prognosis is really grave,” he told The Hindu .
