Guruvayur,Tuesday 23 February 2010: Guruvayur ’Komban’ Ramachandran (68) one of the oldest tuskers in the elephant family of the Dewaswom Board is dead. One of the earliest elephants of the Dewaswom, Ramachandran who has led several processions with Guruvayur Kesavan.

It was also the senior most elephant after Guruvayur Padmanabhan.Ramachandran had not ventured out of the Punnathurkkotta, the famed sanctuary of captive elephants for the last eight years because of old-age related illness.

The tusker’s death came at 3.10 a.m. Ramachandran who collapsed last Thursday was raised with the help of a crane. It even managed to walk a short distance, but collapsed again by 10.30 a.m. on Saturday. The elephant appeared to be extremely tired because of the swelling on its left leg and high fever.

Samuthiri Raja, who was the owner of the Guruvayur Devaswom, gave Ramachandran as an offering to the temple in 1952 when he was he was a 10-year-old. There was a custom of offering elephants when new Zamorins took power. Ramachandran was the last elephant to be offered by Samuthiri Raja.

The body of the elephant was taken for cremation after postmortem. Devaswom chairman Thottathil Raveendran, governing committee members, administrator-in-charge K.N. Raji and others came to the Anakkotta to pay floral tributes to the tusker