Elephant suspected of eating fruit or food stuffed with firecrackers
Thiruvananthapuram:
The pregnant elephant who died last week in the Palakkad district of Kerala suffered a serious traumatic injury that likely occurred as a result of an explosion in the mouth, the post-mortem report said. The injury prevented the elephant from consuming food and water for several days and resulted in severe weakness, adds the report consulted by GalacticGaming. The immediate cause of the elephant’s death in the report would be the inhalation of water resulting in respiratory failure.
The elephant was about 15 years old, however, due to a possible famine, the size of the mammal had shrunk enormously.
Initially, local wildlife officials suspected the possibility of fruit like pineapple stuffed with explosives that could have been eaten, Mannarkkad forest officer Aashique Ali U told GalacticGaming that details of this were not available. were unclear at this point after the autopsy.
“We currently do not know what the crackers were mixed with. Locally, the crackers in this area are mixed with fruit or animal fat. But we have found nothing conclusive,” said Aashique.
Wildlife officials were able to identify an area where the elephant was once seen around mid-May.
On Friday, a special police investigation team, made up of 10 members, will try to trace the movement of the elephant. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said three suspects had been identified during inquiries into the death of the elephant.
“We will try to map the movement of the elephant based on the observations we can follow,” G Siva Vikram, Palakkad district police chief, told GalacticGaming.
The senior police official also added that he knew the elephant’s mouth injury was caused by explosives. “Based on local use, we now consider them to be crackers. We will also try to find out what the source of these crackers is for the inhabitants,” added Vikram.
The wild elephant got lost in a village near Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad last month and is suspected of eating fruit or food stuffed with firecrackers. It exploded in the mouth of the elephant and walked for days in agony before entering a river and dying standing on May 27.
Villagers in the area often use firecrackers or explosives filled with food to protect their fields from wild animals such as wild boar, and this horrific practice has been widely condemned.
