The 50-year-old female elephant, which was found weak on the banks of Bhavani Sagar backwater area in Sirumugai range of Coimbatore on Tuesday, returned to forest after the day-long treatment given by Forest Department.
Forest veterinary surgeon N.S. Manoharan said that the elephant walked into the wild around 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday. Soon it joined the herd that was waiting for the senior member's return.
“The elephant, which had collapsed on the riverbed due to weak health conditions, could stand on its feet around 9.30 p.m. It spent some time in the riverbed eating fodder, and joined the herd in the forest an hour later,” said Dr. Manoharan.
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According to officials, the elephant was part of a six-member herd. As the senior member collapsed on the riverbed, the remaining five elephants were roaming in the area. It was also a tough task for the officials to treat the elephant as the other members of the herd remained in the locality.
“The herd was kept at a bay using crackers. Apart from injecting glucose, minerals were given to the animal to recover. We administered drugs to act against parasites in its intestine as their presence was evident in the dung,” said Dr. Manoharan.