Three elephant deaths were reported from the northern parts of the State on Sunday. One was a wild elephant recently rescued by a Forest Department squad from a deep well at Muthappanpuzha, near Anakkampoyil, in Kozhikode in a widely followed operation.
Though the animal had no serious injuries, it was in distress because of dehydration. Forest officials said the elephant had collapsed after it was released to the forest. Though food and water was given to it on time, apart from first aid, its survival chances seemed bleak, they said. It was on last Friday that the elephant was spotted inside the abandoned well by a patrol team. The animal was reportedly spotted two days after it fell in. It had taken almost 13 hours to rescue the elephant by digging a parallel trench.
In Wayanad, forest officials found the carcass of an elephant calf at Vandikkadavu under the Kurichiyad forest range of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. The carcass of the calf, less than a year old, was found on a rivulet of the Kannarampuzha inside the sanctuary, Warden S. Narendra Babu told The Hindu.
Forest officials’ attempts to remove the carcass from the rivulet were yet to succeed because of the presence of a herd of elephants around the carcass, Mr. Narendra Babu said. Autopsy could be done only after the herd left the place, he said.
Electrocution suspected
On Sunday, a female elephant, aged around 20 years, was found dead in a private farmland at Karulai, near Nilambur, in Malappuram.
The carcass was found at a banana field at Mailambara, Chakkikkuzhi, within the Kalikavu forest range in Nilambur South Forest Division. Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Saji Kumar and Range Officer P. Suresh said the reason for death was mentioned as heart failure in the postmortem report. They said electrocution was strongly suspected. The carcass was buried on Sunday afternoon.
A case has been registered against the owners of the farmland.
