Baby elephant stayed for hours with the body of his mother.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
In a tragic incident, a female elephant was found dead near Kavadiammal temple in Pallam, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday. The incident didn’t attract much public attention as 4 such incidents had been reported from the area in two weeks. But, what happened afterward was heart-breaking.
A video of the incident has surfaced, showing the baby elephant desperately trying to revive its mother. The heart-rending video has gone viral with several people sharing the same on social media.
The two-year-old elephant is seen moving around the deceased elephant, touching her with his trunk and hooves in an attempt to wake her up. Though the forest department officials tried to separate the baby from the mother, he remained there for about seven hours. He chased everyone who tried to come closer.
According to the forest department officials, both the elephants were moving around the area for three days. On Tuesday, the mother collapsed near the temple and died immediately.
“On Tuesday morning, we were informed by a farmer that they were roaming through farm fields in Narasipuram. We drove them away around 6.30 am. However, the cow elephant was found dead within four hours,” a forest department official told The New Indian Express.
“On observing the elephant’s weak state while walking, we asked Animal Husbandry officials to treat it. Unfortunately, it died around 10.30 am,” he added.
A postmortem conducted by the Animal Husbandry Department has confirmed that the cause of death was internal bleeding. Five elephant deaths have been reported from the areain 15 days.