Popular tusker Guruvayur Mukundan dies after long battle with illness

THRISSUR: One of the oldest elephants of the Guruvayur Devaswom board, tusker Mukundan, died on Saturday. The 44-year-old elephant was under treatment for a long time. It was in 1986 that the Samoothiri Raja from Kozhikode dedicated the elephant to the temple.

Since 2006, the tusker suffered from an illness that made it impossible to bend the left leg. After this, Mukundan was not taken out of the elephant enclosure and was occasionally made to walk on the premises. Just two weeks back, the tusker fainted to the ground and was lifted using a crane. After this fall, the tusker's health deteriorated.

The Devaswom officials informed that the body will be cremated in the Kodanad forest on Saturday evening. With Mukundan's demise, the number of elephants at Guruvayoor Devaswom has reduced to 38.