Injured elephant treated by SOS team, critical (State of Tamil Nadu, India)
Injured elephant treated by SOS team, critical (State of Tamil Nadu, India)
The Hindu
January 16, 2021
See link
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/injured-elephant-treated-by-sos-team-critical/article33590104.ece
for photo.
A 40-year-old male elephant that was hit by a container truck near Sanamavu
Reserve forest on Hosur-Krishnagiri national highway was moved to Aiyyur
forest camp for treatment. The elephant’s hind body was incapacitated with
fractures and is feared to have suffered internal injuries, according to
the forest department.
A wildlife SOS team from Karnataka had arrived to Aiyyur forest to attend
to the grievously injured elephant.
According to the District Forest Office Prabhu, bone fracture in the right
hind foot was confirmed through X ray by the SOS team.
On Friday night, a Chennai bound container truck from Bengaluru was
speeding through the Hosur-Krishnagiri highway near Sanamavu forest range,
when it hit the elephant that was crossing the highway. The truck driver, a
native of Tuticorin, was also injured in the accident and was admitted to
Hosur government hospital. The man has been booked under the Wildlife
Protection Act, 1972.
The Hosur-Krishnagiri national highway running through the reserve forests
that lie on the migratory route of elephants was yet to be equipped with
speed monitors and floodlights that could help prevent such accidents.
Absence of flood lights to light up the otherwise mist-filled dark nights
on the highway, which is also the inter-state container corridor, has
caused many accidents killing elephants. The NHAI also does not have speed
monitors to regulate the speed of trucks that take to the highway at
nights, which is also the time when elephants cross the highway.
In 2015, an elephant calf was killed by a speeding car near Perandapalli on
the highway. In 2016, an adult elephant was hit by a bus near Shoolagiri.
In 2017, an elephant was injured in an accident. Its tusks were broken
after being hit by a lorry on the same highway.