A baby elephant under the care of Bomman and Bellie, the key protagonists of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Elephant Whisperers" died on Friday.
For about two weeks, the elephant was under the care of the couple at the Theppakadu Elephant Camp in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. In March, the baby elephant was rescued from a well in Dharmapuri's district of Tamil Nadu.
The baby elephant was been given a liquid-based diet and was monitored by the Bomman and Bellie as well as other medical staff. As per officials, the elephant was fed lactogen.
Baby elephants, however, don't secrete sufficient enzymes to digest lactogen and enzymes such as these are very low in baby elephants that are not being fed by their mother.
Officials feel that the lactogen started to accumulate in the body of the baby elephant and eventually started developing diarrhoea. On Thursday, after noticing diarrhoea in the elephant, the veterinary doctors started giving them glucose mixed with medicines.
But the baby elephant died in the early hours of Friday morning without responding to the treatment. It is suspected that diarrhoea and death could have happened due to some allergies. A post-mortem to know the precise cause of the death is being conducted.
Bomman and Bellie were part of the documentary "The Elephant Whisperers" directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, which is the story of the couple taking care of a baby elephant named Raghu. The documentary won the Oscar in the "Best Short Film Documentary" category.
Also Read: 'It was magical': Guneet Monga reveals what convinced her to produce 'The Elephant Whisperers'
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