Tamil Nadu: Wild elephant dies of hepatitis

Coimbatore: The post-mortem conducted on Saturday revealed that the 25-year-old female elephant undergoing treatment here died on the second day due to hepatitis. The elephant was found unwell in Lingapuram near Sirumugai forest range a few days ago. It died on Friday evening despite continuous treatment for two days at an agricultural land near Odanthurai forest.

The postmortem was conducted by Coimbatore Forest Veterinary Officer Sukumar and Assistant Veterinary Surgeon Thiagarajan in the presence of Sirumugai Forest Range officials.

The animal was unable to stand on its own. Forest department personnel took blood samples from the animal. Sources said the results showed that the animal’s organs were damaged and based on that, veterinarians were treating.

“During the post-mortem, we found that there was injury to the liver and kidney. The animal had hepatitis for about a month; Therefore it was unable to eat fodder and remained weak. We will send samples of the organs to the laboratories of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University or Namakkal Veterinary College and Research Institute to check what caused the hepatitis. It is not known whether he contracted the disease through water, chewing plants or through the air. We will get a clear picture after the results,” said an official.

The body was picked up from the field and buried inside the forest. It was buried in such a way that other wild animals could not remove the remains because they would contain the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs that were given to the animal during treatment.

Three deaths in Coimbatore forest division, which has seven forest ranges. A total of three elephants have died since January 1, two in Sirumugai and one in Madukkarai.