Follow TNM’s WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
A male wild tusker named Rolex, which had been moved from a village near Thondamuthur to Manthirimattam in the Manabololly forest range of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), was found dead after a fall on Wednesday, November 26.
The tusker had previously killed up to four people and regularly destroyed crops in Devarayapuram in the Boluvampatti forest range under the Coimbatore forest division. On October 17, the Forest Department tranquilised and captured Rolex. The elephant was kept in a kraal (wooden enclosure) for about 25 days and was released into a 2 km radius in the Manthirimattam forest on November 12.
A team monitoring the tusker through its radio collar found the animal dead around 2.30 pm near a stream in the Manambolly range.
According to reports, the 40-year-old elephant died after an accidental fall while grazing and drinking water. The fall was witnessed by team members, who approached the spot and found that the animal had died. They reached the location about half an hour after the fall due to a herd of elephants nearby, and the tusker was declared dead on arrival.
This is the second such death within a week involving a translocated tusker dying due to an accidental fall. Earlier, Radhakrishnan, a 30-year-old elephant that had killed 12 people in the O Valley region, died after being shifted to Kothayar in the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR).