Wild tusker injures camp elephant (Coimbatore, India)

Author(s)

The Hindu

Date Published

A wild tusker that was moving around the elephant camp at the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve reception area in the small hours of Monday left one of the Forest Department camp elephants Kamakshi (40) injured.

Authorities suspect that the tusker would have violently solicited the camp elephant and resistance from Kamakshi would have resulted in the injury. A team of veterinarians attended on Kamakshi and her condition is said to be out of danger.

It may be recalled that the same wild tusker created a flutter recently, when the elephant camp was getting ready for the elephant pongal celebrations organised as part of the 48-day-long rejuvenation camp on at Theppakadu.

Meanwhile, two kumkis (tamed and trained elephants) ‘Mudumalai’ and ‘Bomman’ have left the elephant camp in Mudumalai Theppakadu to Cherankodu, near Gudalur, where an electrician Aneesh Abraham was trampled to death, a couple of days ago.

The escalating human-animal conflict situation and the resultant public fury had resulted in the authorities pressing the kumkis into service for chasing the wild tusker deep into the forest away from the plantation areas.

 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/wild-tusker-injures-camp-elephant/article8122197.ece