On Friday, two elephants were killed in separate incidents in the Coimbatore forests- one died after being hit by a train and another three-year-old calf died from injury.
These are not isolated incidents, as many elephants have died in the last 40 days in Coimbatore district.
In the first incident, an elephant aged 10-15 years, was killed after it was hit by a train at Puthupathi in Madukkarai forest. It was struck by the West Coast Express, which was going to Chennai from Mangalore.
The Wildlife department is planning to file a case against the train drivers for killing the elephant. District Forest Officer A Periyasamy said that the railway authorities were not following instructions. The forest department had also asked the trains to run at a speed of 30 km on this route and had advised drivers to sound the horn while going through this corridor.
In another incident, a calf died on Friday evening at Mangarai due to an injury in its mouth. There is speculation that the calf got injured accidentally after an explosive kept by a farmer to kill wild boars went off. Forest officials tried to give the calf medicines, but the herd did not allow them to get close. They managed to give the calf medicine at around 2:30pm, but it died a few hours later.