The Forest Department on Thursday ramped up a tracking team and a veterinarian after field staff reported that Coimbatore’s famed crop raider wild elephant Baahubali, that is not known for attacking people till date, was spotted with an injury in its mouth.
Forest Department sources said that some of the field staff, who were monitoring the tusker on its routine transit paths near Mettupalayam from Wednesday night, spotted it with a bleeding mouth on Thursday morning. However, the cause of injury was yet to be ascertained.
While nature enthusiasts from Mettupalayam alleged that Baahubali could have been bitten into a country-made bomb, locally known as avittukai which poachers use to hunt wild animals, the Forest Department suspects that the elephant could have had a fight with another tusker.
A team comprising Department staff and Forest Veterinary Officer A. Sukumar waited on busy Mettupalayam – Ooty Road on Thursday night as the tusker is known for crossing the road every night.
“The veterinarian has been asked to report the nature of the injury. Further action, including treatment, if required, will be initiated based on the report of the veterinarian,” said a senior official from the Forest Department.
The official said the elephant had caused extensive crop damage in villages around Mettupalayam in the recent past. Agitated over the damages, farmers even resorted to chasing the tusker on their own with firecrackers and scare guns made of PVC pipe. “The Department is investigating whether a crude explosive caused the injury to the tusker,” the official added.
Two sniffer dogs of the Department, Valavan and Bhairavan, were brought to Mettupalayam to conduct special drives in villages bordering forests to check the use of country-made bomb which is mainly placed to hunt wild boars. The crude explosive is normally stuffed inside fruits or wrapped with meat waste to lure wild animals.
Though the Department had tried to tranquillise and radio-collar the elephant to monitor its movement in 2021, the attempt was aborted after the animal remained elusive for over two weeks.
