THRISSUR:
Kerala lost two popular captive elephants
Mangalamkunnu Karnan
and
K R Sivaprasad
on Thursday, pushing the
elephant
lovers in the state into deep grief. While Karnan died at Mangalamkunnu near Cherpulassery in
Palakkad
district, in the early morning, Sivaprasad died at Kadavallur near Perumpilavu in Thrissur around noon.
Karnan, which was brought from
Bihar to Kerala way back in the 1990s, was nearing 59 as per records, but elephant lovers say it must be well above
65. The elephant, which has been a popular presence in numerous festivals, including the famed Thrissur Pooram, has several fans associations in different parts of the state.
Karnan, which is known for its elegant behaviour and capability to raise its head above other taller tuskers, has had a couple of celluloid presence too. Several film stars like Prathviraj, Tovino Thomas have posted condolence messages on the death of Karnan.
Palakkad ACF (social forestry) G Harikrishnan Nair said the elephant was under treatment for more than six months for age-related ailments. “The postmortem is being done at Walayar late Thursday, and the exact cause of death would be known only after the test reports came,” he said.
K R Sivaprasad, was an elephant captured from Kerala forests, and as per its data book it was aged 60, according to the Thrissur ACF (social forestry) P M Prabhu. Sivaprasad, which is registered in Kottayam, was also suffering from age-related ailments and was under treatment for the past couple of months, Prabhu said. He said the postmortem would be conducted at the elephant cremation centre of the forest department at Malayattur on Friday.
Heritage animal task force leader Venkitachalam said this was the 45th captive elephant which was dying in Kerala after the last census in November, 2018. The data available then had indicated that Kerala had a stock of 521
captive elephants
and with the death of these
elephants
the captive elephant population has dwindled to 476.
A disturbing dimension is that more than 40% of the captive elephants in Kerala are above 50 years of age indicating that many of them are likely to develop age-related ailments in the near future, the elephant lovers pointed out.
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