Two elephants’ day out in Kovai lake cut short by officials
Two wild elephants’ day out in a lake near Coimbatore was cut short by the Forest Department officials as they were driven back into the wild in nearby reserve forest on Tuesday.
Coimbatore
The elephants were out of the reserve forest to bathe in the lake. But, the villagers, who spotted them, assumed that the animals were caught in slush as they stayed put in deep waters of the lake at Muttathuvayal for long hours. They believed that the elephants couldn’t move out and were in need of help to come out of the water.
On receiving information, the staff of the Forest Department rushed to the spot to find out that the animals weren’t caught in slush, but were just enjoying a cool bath in the lake that was brimming with water following rains over the last few days. The water body has been located around 2 kilometers away from the Boluvampatti reserve forest.
A team which reached the lake at around 7 am sent away the people, who have gathered to watch the elephants bath as their presence may disturb the peace of the animals and trigger a conflict.
This pair of elephants, which tried to venture out of the forest cover on Monday night, was in fact driven back by the front line staff of the department. However, they got out through a tribal hamlet to reach the lake.
“They were not caught in slush. It took about two hours for us to drive the animals back into the Boluvampatti Block II reserve forest area. The movement of the elephants was tracked with a drone camera to ensure that they were back into the wild,” said District Forest Officer D Venkatesh.
Captive jumbos at ATR test negative for coronavirus
All the 28 captive elephants at Kozhikamuthi camp in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) have tested negative for COVID-19. The samples collected by veterinarians from the elephants were sent to Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Uttar Pradesh for analysis on June 8. The tests were done after a lioness died of COVID-19 and nine other lions tested positive for the infection at Vandalur Zoo in Chennai. The results, which were known on Tuesday, revealed that the animals were not infected by COVID-19. Already, 28 elephants at the Theppakadu elephant camp in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve have tested negative and declared free from the infection.
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