Elephant found dead near Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: An elephant was found dead near Anna University's regional campus in Marudhamalai beat in Coimbatore district. Forest department officials said the male elephant -- aged between 25 and 30 years – had suffered injuries on its mouth, forehead and abdomen after fighting with another tusker.

The elephant was found dead at least 1.4 km away from the reserve forest and adjacent to the compound wall of the Anna University’s regional campus.

Coimbatore forest range officer R Arun Kumar and his team rushed to the spot. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the dead male elephant and three more male elephants used to roam in the locality. They were crop raiders.

The herd of four male elephants might have strayed out of the reserve forest, and two of them fought with each other.

Dr E Vijayaragavan, forest veterinary assistant surgeon, Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), and team performed postmortem on the carcass.