Video: Weeping baby elephant desperately tries to wake dead mother

COIMBATORE: In a poignant scene at the Narsipuram forest area in Coimbatore, a two-year-old elephant calf refused to move away from its mother elephant, which lay dead in the forest near Thondamuthur. Captured on video, the calf could be seen waking up the dead mother by its trunk with tears in it's eyes. Villagers of Narsipuram, who saw the calf desperately shaking her mother awake, were moved to tears. The calf remained by the mother elephant till Monday evening.

In the last 15 days, three tuskers and two female elephants have died in Coimbatore division, causing concern among the wildlife conservationists. The female elephant, estimated to be around 30-years-old, along with a 2-year-old calf, were frequently spotted inside the Narsipuram forest area and Vaithaegi falls in Polluvampatti range. The female elephant trumpeted many times on Tuesday morning standing near the Kavadi Aathal koil road and then fell to the ground.

The villagers, who saw the elephant collapsing, alerted the Forest department. The Forest department staffs and officials rushed to the spot, but the elephant was found dead. Veterinarian Devaraj was called to perform post-mortem, but the calf did not move away from its mother till end of the day. It was walking around its mother and making attempt to wake up its mother, amid villagers shedding tears seeing this emotional scene.

Coimbatore DFO in charge A.Periyasamy told the DC that the elephant might have died of some severe abdominal infection. “But the exact cause of the elephant’s death will be known only after the post-mortem report,” he said.