Mudumalai forest department arrests 2 men for elephant's death in TN

Mudumalai Forest Department in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiri district has arrested two men residing in Mudumalai for allegedly running an illegal cottage and being responsible for the death of a 50-year-old wild jumbo.

Speaking to , Srikanth, a forest official said, "A 50-year-old wild jumbo was noticed with injuries on its back in November and for the past two months we were trying to give treatment. In December, we captured the injured jumbo seen with pus on the injured area and later we provided treatment to that elephant and let it into the forest area."

"The elephant again started moving to the residential area but did not cause any damage to anyone. In the first week of January 2020, the injured jumbo moved to the residential area and this was noted by the residents and they started to chase the elephant. Later, they torched a tyre and threw it on the injured jumbo. The elephant ran away with fire injury and later died," Srikanth added.

Based on the video evidence, the house owner Prasad and Raymond were arrested on Friday evening under the Wildlife Protection Act section (9) (seven years imprisonment) and another person Ricky involved in this case is missing. A special team has been formed to arrest him.

The arrested accused will be produced in the court today, said the forest official.

"In order to create awareness among the public, not to indulge in such incidents and harass wild mals, we will be distributing pamphlets," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )