Many years ago, we got a report that Lakshmi, a temple elephant in Davanagere (Karnataka), had suddenly died. We went to conduct a post-mortem,” says Manoj Kumar, a senior official at the Karnataka Forest Department who oversaw the Project Elephant program in the state till July 2018. “It was tragic to find out that Lakshmi died due to constipation. It was festival season and they had fed her only coconuts and bananas.”