The female elephant that was rescued from slush and under treatment at the Mudumalai Tiger reserve (MTR) died today not responding to treatment.
As the monsoons failed big time last year, the water bodies around the 321 sq km Mudumalai Tiger Reserve has completely dried up, leading to huge scarcity of fodder and water to the wild animals. Yesterday, a 20-year-old female elephant was spotted amidst a pool of deep slush at the Karkudi range, MTR.
Upon receiving information, a crew of forest officials comprising of Director of MTR Srinivasa Reddy, Dr. Vijayaraghavan, MTR Ranger Gnanadass and forest watchers rushed to the spot to rescue the elephant. Despite, several hours of struggle, the officials were unable to rescue the elephant from the slush.
Hence, it was decided to deploy Kumki elephants, Mudumalai, Bomman, John, Santosh and Jambu from MTR in the rescue operations. After a tough struggle, the elephant was retrieved from the slush.
As the rescued elephant was in a state of dehydration and fatigue, the team of veterinarians administered salines and basic medication to bring it back to normalcy.
But unfortunately the elephant died today, not responding to the treatment. As the forest holds only scarce fodder and water wild animals like bison, elephant, deer, bears, tiger and leopard have been migrating to nearby forest areas in search of fodder and water.
A source from Mudumalai shares that intermittent showers during the upcoming summer will better the situation. But, if the rains fail, the Mudumalai forest range will face severe drought situation this summer followed by death of many wild animals.