A makhna (tuskless male elephant) that was translocated by the Forest Department from a village near Pollachi to Chinna Kallar in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) near Valparai in July this year was found dead on Sunday.
The Department suspects that the radio-collared elephant had a fatal fall from a steep rocky terrain. According to it, frontline staff found the carcass in Nagamalai area of Villone forest beat, falling under the Kottur section of the Pollachi forest range, while patrolling the area.
The carcass was in decomposing state and the elephant, aged around 35, is believed to have died a few days ago. The post-mortem has been scheduled for Monday. The makhna was first translocated from Dharmapuri district to the ATR on February 5 this year after it caused extensive damage to crops in villages bordering forests.
However, the elephant strayed from the ATR and travelled over 100 km to reach Perur near Coimbatore city.
Though it was captured from a banana plantation at Perur and translocated to another location in the ATR on February 23, it started entering villages again. The Department captured the elephant for a third time from Saralapathi, 20 km off Pollachi, on July 31 from where it was translocated to Chinna Kallar. The Department said it had been monitoring the movement of the elephant using a GPS-enabled radio collar. An official, however, claimed that the radio collar might not emit signals all the time.
