SEVEN ELEPHANTS DIED IN PERIYAR

The expert team that stdied the circumstances leading to the death of seven Elephants in the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala over the last six weeks has concluded that the killings could be the work of a wild tusker in musth. When the musth elephants become aggressive and sexually active. This is a perodic condition in male bull elephants. Elephants in musth secrets a thick tar- like fluid from their temporal ducts on either side of the head. such a full- grown tusker has been spotted in the area from the killings were repoted, but no injuries sustained fatal injuries in the neck and skull and other parts of the body. Similar incidents have been reported fromother parts of the world too, both among Africaqn Elephants and Asian Elephants. But a majority of them involved fights between tuskers for dominance as they moved after herds to seek out receptive cow elephants.
Eleven tusker deaths were repoted in fights among elephants in the corbett National Park in 2008. There had also been six cow elephants killings in various wildlife tracts of TamilNadu during the last two years.
Periyar sanctuary is also a project Elephant area with a roaming elephant population of more than 1000 according to the last wild life census
Prof John Kurakar