A female wild elephant, which strayed into the human habitat from the forest area at Parekkapara near Karikootakari in the interiors of Iritty in the district, collapsed and died in front of the people including the Forest Department officials, on Monday forenoon apparently following various ailments.
According to forest department officials, the elephant was nearly 20 years old and when they went to chase it off after getting the information from the local residents, they found it in a weak condition and it was unable to walk.
Since the elephant’s health condition was weak, they tried to scare it off by exploding crackers. Though it tried to climb a hill on hearing this, it could not move and then coming near a canal, it knelt and died around 11 a m, they said.
According to local residents, a deep wound was seen on one of the legs of the elephant. However, as per the autopsy, that was not the cause of death and its intestine was full of worms due to which it was unable to eat or even excrete, said the officials. It is also suspected that it had serious liver ailment, which could be confirmed only after detailed medical examination of the viscera.
The viscera have been collected to send it to Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram for forensic analysis. The carcass of the elephant was cremated in the evening after the autopsy, they said.