Female elephant found dead

Coimbatore: A female elephant was found dead on Tholampalayam beat in Periyanaickenpalayam forest range on Thursday. Frontline staff of the forest department found the carcass during a patrol. On Friday, a team comprising forest veterinary officer Dr A Sukumar, veterinary assistant surgeons Dr M Jayabharathi from Tholampalayam veterinary hospital and Dr A Venugopal from Dhayanur veterinary hospital conducted a postmortem.The elephant, which was likely over 40-year-old, must have died of acute anemia two days ago, Sukumar said. “The elephant’s stomach was empty as it had not taken adequate food for the last few days. The liver and kidneys were pale in colour, indicating that it was affected by acute anemia. It might have died of acute anemia of unknown origin leading to hypoxia, and sternal recumbency resulting in cardiopulmonary stress.”