Salem: The ailing Sugavaneswarar temple elephant Rajeshwari, struggling for its life, eventually died a natural death on Saturday post-noon, barely couple of days after the Madras High court allowed the jumbo's mercy killing.
In a moving ritual later after post-mortem was performed around 4 pm, Rajeshwari was laid to rest in a nearby pit by 7 pm, amid a large number of devotees giving her a tearful farewell and the Salem district collector, Ms Rohini Bhajubhakare paying special homage to the departed pachyderm.
The 42 year-old elephant was suffering with severe pain in her legs for long. Rajeshwari was also being treated for tuberculosis for the last ten years. The elephant had also suffered an injury when it jumped off a truck meant to take her to a jumbos' rejuvenation camp. All these ailments cumulatively worsened her condition and she was under treatment at a temple land in Athukadu near here.
Rajeshwari's health condition worsened further as she was unable to stand. She was turned over with help of an earthmover on March 17 for treatment. However, one of her tusks broke and she suffered a fracture in a leg during the procedure.
Following a petition by a social activist Muralidharan, the High court permitted her mercy killing if, as the Judges said, it was too cruel to keep the elephant alive. A team of doctors and health officials led by Prof. Jayathangaraj of the Veterinary and Clinical Medicine department of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (Tanuvas) checked the elephant few days ago following the court's direction to submit a medical report on her health condition within 48 hours.
Even as more people visited the elephant suffering in pain and agony with bedsores, offered prayers and demanded that the planned euthanasia be called off, Rajeshwari breathed her last in the natural course around 12-20 pm on Saturday.
However, devotees charged that elephant was not given proper treatment, with the founder of the 'Thiruthondar Sabai', A Radhakrishnan even calling for police action against the concerned officials. He also urged that government form a committee to look into the health of all temple elephants in the state. Meanwhile, a local astrologer from Salem, J Ravikanth, saw in the pachyderm's death a "bad omen" which could bring about "changes" in Tamil Nadu politics.
