Postmortem reveals removal of tusk days after elephant's death

COIMBATORE: After a postmortem examination was conducted, the forest officials on Sunday confirmed that the tusk of the dead elephant found in Coimbatore was removed days after its death.

A male elephant was found dead in Anuvavi Kovil Saragam, informed the forest department of Coimbatore.

Forest Veterinary Officer, Dr A Sukumar carried out the postmortem.

The reports cited that the Asian elephant breathed his last almost three weeks back and was around 23 to 26 years of age at the time.

"The right tusk was missing from the right tusk socket but no signs of chiselling were found on the right tusk socket. Hence the Right tusk must have been removed about seven to ten days after the elephant's death," said Dr A Sukumar.

"No significant external injuries were observed and all internal organs were in the state of advanced putrefaction. The samples were collected for the DNA profiling analysis", he said.

The Forest Veterinary Officer further said, "The Carcass was in the state of Advanced Putrefaction hence the exact cause of death could not be made."

Earlier in another incident in Chattisgarh, a tusker was found dead at Ramanujganj forest in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur district on Saturday.

Chief Conservator of Forest Anurag Shrivastava told ANI that the tusker had come from the Wadrafnagar forest range to the Ramanujganj forest area on October 9. It damaged the crops of farmers in the area. The forest employees were continuously monitoring the movement of the tusker.

On Saturday morning, the employees found the footprint of the tusker and they started a search on the basis of it. During this, they found the carcass of the elephant lying in the bushes.

According to prima facie evidence, the death of the tusker seemed to be due to slipping from the hilly slope, he added.

The team of veterinary doctors, who reached for the post-mortem, said that infection was found in the lungs and liver of the elephant. Following this, the blood and urine of the elephant were sent to Rae Bareli Lab for further examination.