The Tamil Nadu Government has appointed a special monitoring squad due to the mountainous elephant deaths that happened in and around Coimbatore city, 11 in three months, leaving the forest department, environmentalists and the public in shock.
Coimbatore: A special monitoring squad is devised by the Government of Tamil Nadu owing to the increased death of elephants in Coimbatore regions, that has been unimaginably high in three months.
In a shocking incident, 11 wild elephants have died in Coimbatore district in the last three months alone. While the forest department said most of the elephants died due to ill health, there were also incidents of elephants dying due to electrocution and explosion.
Death by train accident in November 2021:
Three including a pregnant female elephant died after being run over by train in November 2021.
Elephant cub trapped inside building in Jan, 2022:
On January 28, 2022, the forest department found the remains of an elephant cub, stuck inside the nutrition meal centre in Valparai.
Two female, one male elephant found dead in Feb 2022:
On February 5, a 30-year-old female elephant was found dead in Karamadai forest range due to ill health, horrifyingly,
two days later, on February 7, a 45-year-old female elephant died of illness in Thadagam area of Coimbatore.
The deaths continued with another 15-year-old male elephant found dead on February 12. According to reports the animal had come to graze inside the patta land near Thadagam, died after being trapped in an electric fence installed there.
The reason for the elephant's death was found to be the use of high-power wire on the fence despite the government ban. Following this, a case was registered against Manoharan and Naresh, the owners of a private estate, under the Wildlife Protection Act. However, they have not been arrested as they are absconding so far.
March 6 - Female elephant, one male elephant dies
On March 2, a female elephant was found roaming around in the Top Slip forest area of Anaimalai in Pollachi with an injury to its leg. Following this, the forest department administered anesthetic injection to the baby elephant and treated it. The elephant died while undergoing treatment in a crawl.
In the next two days, another jumbo died due to bad health in a private estate in Malanad, Valparai on March 4.
While the continued elephant deaths were being processed, on March 16, the skeletons of a 7-year-old female elephant was found in the Kadukkaiparai in Narasipuram, Coimbatore.
The following day, on March 17, the body of a 30-year-old male elephant was found in the Thadagam Mangarai forest area.
Later, on March 22, a 10-year-old female elephant cub was found in the Mullangadu forest area with injuries on her mouth, totally weary of health. The elephant died on March 24 while undergoing treatment. During investigation, it was found that the elephant was injured as a country bomb exploded inside its mouth and was unable to take food and water for 21 days.
On March 29, a six-year-old female elephant was found dead in the Bhavani catchment area of Sirumugai forest range.
Finally, a 10-year-old female elephant was found dead in Pethikkuttai area of Sirumugai forest range on March 31.
In addition, 11 elephants have died in Coimbatore forest range viz., 3 in Coimbatore and Poluvampatti forest range, 2 in Sirumugai forest range and Valparai one in topslip, the alarming numbers taking back to 2020, when a total of 22 elephants died in Coimbatore district. A committee was formed to prevent the death of the elephant. But with 11 elephants dying in the first three months of this year, there is a fear of death rate increasing leaving forest activists in shock.
Animal activists said, "It is painful to see elephants dying continuously in Coimbatore. While most of the deaths of elephants are due to ill health, the forest department has to find out the root cause." Similarly, they have demanded that the government should take appropriate steps to prevent deaths.
Orders to audit unnatural wildlife deaths:
Supriya Sahu, Principal Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forest Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, said, a committee headed by a senior IAF officer will be constituted to identify and audit the unnatural wildlife that is dying in Tamil Nadu. She said that all the details will be examined by the forest department officials at the district level.
A team of 4 IPS officers have been constituted by the Tamil Nadu government to monitor elephant deaths. A separate committee is formed by the Tamil Nadu forest department to deal with the deaths of elephants. A committee headed by Additional Chief Conservator of Forests Anwardeen and comprising Executive Project Officer Padma, Deputy Conservator of Forests Samarth and environmentalist "Osai" Kalidasan is constituted.
The team will go directly to the field when elephant deaths are reported and record the ground realities about the cause of death.
Similarly, they will also visit villages adjoining the forest area to create awareness to prevent unnatural deaths of elephants.