Cause of elephant’s injury being investigated

Forest officials, who are assigned the task of monitoring the condition of an injured 40-year-old tusker in the Sugur Reserve Forest near Masinagudy, are in the process of determining what caused the injury.

District Forest Officer, The Nilgiris North, Ashish Kumar Srivasrava on Saturday said that the nature of the injury on the tip of the trunk indicated that it was not natural. It may have been caused by a sharp object or a barbed wire fence.

Wildlife offence

However, “we are not ruling out anything”, he said and added that a piece of the trunk had fallen off.

If it had been caused by a snare it would be treated as a wildlife offence and appropriate action initiated.

Pointing out that the animal was now roaming along with two other elephants or alone, Mr. Srivastava said that it was very docile.

A swelling in a part of the trunk, which was noticed earlier, had come down.

To a question, he said that the injury was not life threatening.

Medicine

Though normally in such situations the law of the jungle would be allowed to take its course, in this case steps had been taken to provide oral medicine through bananas, jack fruits, and water melons.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/cause-of-elephants-injury-being-investigated/article4493819.ece