The veterinary team estimated that the elephant was around 20 years old.
The census, which has been under way since August, has involved installing around 700 additional camera traps in dense and difficult-to-access areas of the Coimbatore forest division that could not be monitored effectively during earlier surveys.
Forest officials said the carcass had decomposed in the dense thickets and that some of the remains could have been washed downstream by water flowing through the stream, as the area is difficult for people to access. The remains were spotted by forest department personnel who were inspecting camera traps as part of the ongoing tiger census within the Poondi central forest beat in Coimbatore district. During a subsequent inspection of the surrounding area, they found an elephant skull with tusks a short distance from the stream. Other body parts were also found nearby.
COIMBATORE: Forest department officials found the skeletal remains and tusks of an elephant in an inaccessible and thorny patch of the Boluvampatti range of the Coimbatore forest division on Thursday, nearly a year after the animal is believed to have died. On Thursday, personnel monitoring cameras in the Poondi central beat of the Bolampatti forest range noticed elephant bones near a stream.
The veterinary team estimated that the elephant was around 20 years old. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Coimbatore | Silver Rate in Coimbatore | Bank Holidays in Coimbatore | Public Holidays in Coimbatore | Coimbatore AQI | Weather in Coimbatore | Petrol Price in Coimbatore | Diesel Price in Coimbatore | CNG Price in Coimbatore | LPG Price in Coimbatore Stay updated with the latest Coimbatore news.
The exact cause of the death could not be immediately established, officials said. Following instructions from the district forest officer, a postmortem was conducted. The elephant’s tusks were recovered. Download the TOI App.