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While a four-month-old calf died three days ago, a female elephant died in the early hours of the Tuesday. Doctor suspected lack of food and water as reasons for the deaths. Forest staff noticed both animal carcasses on Monday morning.
The calf’s carcass was found in Kovilpallam odai within Moyar forest beat in Masinagudi forest range in a decomposed state.
Similarly, the female elephant, aged more than 50 years, died due to ageing in Kakkanallah beat, Theppkkadu forest range.
According to V A Saravanan, Deputy Director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), “Survival rate is low for calf elephants until they turn one-and-a-half year-old. The calf was allegedly separated from its mother elephant and had to search for its own food in the forests. As a result, the animal could have failed to get nutritious food and died.”
N S Manokaran, Deputy Director of Forest Veterinary Service, who conducted the post-mortems, said that the aged female animal died due health related complications, mostly due to lack of fodder and water.
The official, meanwhile, said that footprints of spotted deer and wild dogs, and pug marks of tigers were seen near the elephant carcass.
“It shows that several wild animals are thriving, despite lack of fodder in the forest,” he said. Both elephant carcass have been left for scavenging for other wild animals.