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15-year-old female elephant succumbs to illness in Coimbatore

17 jumbo deaths have been recorded in the region this year, of which 4-5 elephants died due to a similar nature of illness.

A 15-year-old female elephant succumbed to prolonged illness in Coimbatore on Monday. The new death of the elephant takes the total number of elephant deaths in the region so far this year to 17.

Speaking to TNM, Coimbatore district Forest Officer Venkatesh said, “A parasite was found in the stomach of the elephant which supposedly caused the death of the jumbo. We took the samples of the parasite and have sent for testing. The parasite stopped the elephant from consuming food for the past 15 days.” 

On Saturday, the female elephant was found unconscious in Boluvampatti in Coimbatore district. The forest officials along with a medical team rescued the jumbo and were providing health supplements for the past three days since the elephant stopped consuming food. 

On Saturday, doctor Sukumar who did the autopsy for the elephant told the media, “The medical team rushed for help and we were providing treatment. On Monday at 9 am, the elephant died. Till now 4-5 elephants have died in similar ways. The samples of the other elephants that we sent earlier reached us only five days or a week after the death of the elephant so we could not ascertain the exact reason for the death. However, this elephant died only now and we have sent the samples for testing. We will do a bacteria culture and find if there is any bacteria behind the reason for death.”

A male elephant died due to illness in Sirumugai forest range on July 3.

On the death of the elephant in Sirumugai, the doctor said, “The elephant died due to chronic poisoning. Liver and kidney were positive for organophosphorus but the food in the stomach showed negative for poisoning. The reason for the death can be that the elephant had food with organophosphorus components sprayed by the farmers. It can also be because of certain kinds of food eaten by the elephant because even some of the food we consume has organophosphorus so we cannot immediately come to a conclusion. This needs to be researched and we have sent the samples to four or five labs for testing.”

Source: The News Minute