A female elephant was found dead near a coffee estate at Valparai, around 110 km away from Coimbatore city on Wednesday morning.
The carcass of the elephant aged between 20 and 22 years was found in a shola forest pocket close to a coffee estate at Varattuparai near Valparai. The location falls within the limits of Valparai forest range of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR).
A Forest Department official said that the carcass was about two weeks old and a government veterinarian from Valparai autopsied it.
“The carcass was found on a sloppy terrain inside the shola forest. Animals move through the area to a nearby water source. Autopsy findings suggested that the elephant could have died of a fall from a height. It could have had a natural fatal fall or it could have been pushed by another elephant,” the official said.
The carcass was left in the wild for scavengers after the post-mortem.
Vast estates with patches of shola fall within the limits of Valparai forest range of ATR where human-animal interactions are common.
