Doctors said chances of significant movement from paralysis looks slim. Dr Vishwanath will undergo a surgery on Monday.

The vet suffered severe cervical spine injuries while attempting to separate two BBP elephants (Lilli and Gayathri) from the wild tuskers they had mingled with in the forest, and herd them back into the park.

“We let our tame elephants often into the forest for grazing and they are brought back by the mahouts the next morning,” explained ACF, BBP, Shankar.

“On Saturday, when the mahouts went to bring back these two elephants, they couldn't find them. Around 3 o clock, they the BBP elephants were walking towards the park with wild tuskers in their company. Our staff, including Dr Vishwanth, tried to scare the wild elephants back into the forest to herd the cow elephants back into the protected area,” he added.

According to Shankar, a wild tusker aged about 10, charged at Dr Vishwanath as he was running away, and pushed him to the ground. When the vet pretended to be dead, it ran away, and the doctor was immobile after the fall, The wild tuskers often join the cow elephants in the forest. Many a time, BBP elephants do not return for two to three days during harvest season.

Spine injury

Dr S Satish, neurosurgeon at Apollo Hospital, said that Dr Vishwanath’s fall caused a severe cervical spine injury due to which he has lost control over his limbs. His condition is being treated with drugs, and has been put on skeletal traction to bring his spine back to alignment, and to reduce the impact of the fracture. It also appears that the vet had a cervical spondylosis surgery 15 years ago, he said.

The dedicated vet had won accolades at the recently- conducted Wildlife Week.