NE NEWS SERVICE
UDHAGAMANDALAM, JAN 22
A burning object, suspected to be an old tyre, was hurled on a wild elephant by an unidentified person after it strayed into a human habitat in Masinagudi in Nilgiris district, forest officials have said.
Barbaric act in Nilgiris, Tamilnadu. An elephant was attacked with a burning tyre, in a private resort, killing the animal. Hope the guilty are punished for this inhumane act of violence. #WA #EveryLifeMatters #SaveWildlife pic.twitter.com/iLJn2yxgdq
— Praveen Angusamy IFS 🐾 (@JungleWalaIFS) January 22, 2021
Releasing a video of the incident on Friday, the officials said the elephant with serious injuries on one of the ears died without responding to treatment a couple of days ago, sources in the forest department said.
One person was nabbed on suspicion and was being interrogated, the sources said. The video showed the object in flames hurled from a building on the animal injuring its ear. The elephant fled trumpeting in pain, they said.
Very disturbing visuals of a negative human-elephant interface are surfacing. Deeply saddened. Animal got burnt, was treated but succumbed. 2 persons have been arrested as per info. Wish no such negative human-elephant interfaces go to this extreme. #elephant pic.twitter.com/qaaMygH8ds
— Ramesh Pandey (@rameshpandeyifs) January 22, 2021
Later, it was found lying near a dam. The forest department veterinarians tried to revive it, but in vain. A postmortem was done. A provisional diagnosis suggested that the septic fistula filled with pus and severe loss of blood leading to acute anaemia, hypovolemia resulted in shock and death of the 50-year-old tusker, though the burns on the ear have not been the cause of death, they said.
In connection with this, forest officials taken into custody two persons and are on the look out for the other one, sources in the forest departmnent said.
