BENGALURU: A sub-adult female elephant (30) was knocked down by a speeding truck in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Chamarajanagar district on Tuesday evening, making it the second such incident in a Tiger Reserve of the State in recent years.
The elephant, a latest victim of a road kill, succumbed to severe head injuries, however, a necropsy will be conducted today, officials said.
The incident is said to have happened around 8. 30 pm and the spot where the elephant was killed is about three-km from the Maddur check post of Bandipur. In 2010, an elephant calf was hit by a truck near Moolehole of Bandipur, also on the same stretch of road in Bandipur.
It may be recalled here that a couple of years back, a speeding bus passing through Nagarahole Tiger Reserve (Hunsur-Ponnampet road) hit a tamed elephant “Rowdy Ranga” inside the Reserve and the elephant succumbed to severe spinal injuries.
According to Director of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Ramesh Kumar, a single female elephant was crossing the road when a speeding 8-wheeler truck from Kerala towards Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar hit the it leading to its death.
“Scratch marks and bleeding was found on the head of the carcass to ascertain that the animal suffered severe head injuries,” said the Director. The driver of the truck and its cleaner has been taken into custody.
A wildlife conservationist told Deccan Chronicle on Wednesday that the condition of Maddur-Moolehole road in Bandipur has been good while the road humps on the stretch of the road are not prominent enough to make speeding vehicles halt and proceed.
Due to ineffective speed-breakers, he observed neither trucks nor buses passing through Maddur-Moolehole of Bandipur give attention to the road humps resulting in road kills.
