Carcasses of four elephants found in Pachakkanam forest

Severe burns found on carcass; officials say lightning might have caused deaths

Putrified carcass of a calf elephant found at Varayadinkokka in the Pachakkanam forest station limits of Ranni Forest Division on Friday. The carcass of another calf elephant and that of two other adult elephants were also found in the same locality. All the pachyderms were said to have been struck by lightning in the forests on Thursday. Photo: Special Arrangement.

Carcasses of four wild elephants, two of them calves, were found in the interior forest areas of Varayadinkokka in the Pachakkanam forest station limits of the Goodrickal forest range in the Ranni forest division on Friday.

Forest Department sources at Pachakkanam said that frequent lightning which had struck the forest tracts on August 17 could have caused the animals' death. Severe burns were found all over the carcass, sources said. They ruled out the possibility of electrocution since no power transmission line was passing through the area.

The carcasses would be burnt in the forests itself after conducting an autopsy on Saturday, official sources said.

R. Kamalahar, Ranni Divisional Forest Officer; Sanjayankumar, Thekkady DFO; P.R.Sureshkumar, Deputy Director, Periyar-West, and H.T.Jose, Goodrickal Forest Range Officer, visited the spot on Friday.

The autopsy would be conducted by wildlife veterinary surgeon Sreejith on Saturday, sources said.