BANDIPUR: Thaneer Komban, the rogue tusker that created panic in Mananthavady on Friday, died early Saturday morning, just hours after being released into the Bandipur forest. Karnataka's Principal Forest Conservator confirmed that the elephant died at the Ramapura Elephant Camp in Bandipur on Saturday morning. The people of Wayanad, who were relieved that the elephant was captured and taken away, learned about the elephant's death yesterday morning. With that, everyone became sad. Meanwhile, it is alleged that the Forest Department officials did not ensure life-saving care for the tranquillized elephant.

The elephant, captured on Friday, was brought to the elephant camp in Ramapura in Bandipur at around 2 am. The elephant collapsed while it was being released into the forest with the help of two kumki elephants. It died soon. The elephant had been fired with two tranquillizers within a period of 20 days.

On January 16th, the Karnataka authorities had captured the elephant, who was stationed at a coffee plantation in Belur in Hassan district, and released him into the Nagarhola forest after fitting a radio collar. From there, the elephant reached Edavaka Panchayat in Wayanad and then Mananthavadi Municipality on the morning of February 2. Thanneer Komban, who was stationed at the banana plantation in Mananthavadi, was tranquillized after a fifteen-hour-long mission. The elephant was then taken to Karnataka in an elephant ambulance.

Officials of the Forest Department said that they captured the elephant by tranquillizing it as a last resort as it was not possible to drive away the elephant into the forest. With the incident becoming controversial, the post-mortem was jointly conducted by the Kerala and Karnataka forest department officials.

Forest Minister AK Saseendran appointed a five-member inquiry committee to conduct an investigation into the incident. CCF K Vijayanand is the chairman of the committee. The committee members are M Neetu Lakshmi, Dr R Raj, Dr Roshnath and L Namashivayan.

Elephant died of heart attack: Post mortem report

According to the post-mortem report, the elephant died of a heart attack. The report said that the elephant's heart and lungs stopped together. There was an old wound on the left thigh. The report also stated that the pus on the leg had spread to other parts of the body.

The preliminary report also mentioned that there was excessive fat in the veins. After getting fired with a tranquillizer shot, the elephant remained without enough water for 15 hours. The forest department officials had assessed that dehydration may have occurred due to this and the minimum level of electrolytes may have led to the heart attack.