Two farmers held for gunning down mother elephant, search on for calf

Coimbatore

The incident came to light on Thursday morning, when villagers noticed the elephant lying dead with blood oozing out of its ears at a farm in Kandiyur forest area. Forest staff were initially clueless over its mysterious death, but a post mortem revealed that the animal was shot dead. Officials also recovered fragments of a bullet from the head of the elephant. On suspicion, the department nabbed the two farmers, who confessed to the offence. The duo told police that they opened fire fearing for their lives as the animal strayed into their farm and began to chase them at night. Acting on their information, the officials retrieved a country made gun kept hidden near a rivulet in Thekkampatty area. The animal along with its calf had entered into the corn field of Ramasamy on Wednesday. “As the farmers opened fire, the mother elephant, aged around 36 to 40 years died on the spot. Different Forest department teams had fanned out to check if the calf jumbo likely to be ten months old had joined a herd,” said an official.

Tusker electrocuted
In another incident, an adult tusker died of electrocution at a resort in Masinagudi in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) on Thursday. The jumbo, aged about 18 years, had gone into a resort named ‘Bamboo Banks’ to consume bamboo shoots. “The elephant had broken down a bamboo shoot, which fell on an overhead power line and it snapped falling over the animal. The jumbo died of electrocution. The power lines were running from the main building of the resort to rooms nearby,” said a senior Forest Department official. A forest team carried out post mortem and the carcass of the animal was buried after extracting the tusks. A team from Tangedco inspected the site and ruled out any foul play.