Chennai, Jan 15 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu Forest Department, which has launched a massive operation to capture wild tusker, ‘Karuppan’ which has created havoc in many areas of the Thalavadi, Hasanur, and Jeerhalli forest ranges under the Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve, has still not been able to succeed.
A 150-strong team including senior officers of the department, forest veterinarians, and others failed to capture the animal for the fourth successive day.
On Saturday, the forest veterinarians were able to hit the tusker with the anesthetic injection and it fainted. However, when the forest officials were loading it in a truck, using Kumki elephants and expert mahouts, Karuppan regained consciousness and escaped into the forest.
In the evening, the Forest Department officials again fired an anaesthesia-filled dart at it, but the elephant again escaped into the deep forest.
Sources in the Forest Department, however, told IANS that the terrain and weather conditions in some areas of the forest ranges including mist and fog by evening is becoming a hindrance to capturing the elephant. The officials also said that the elephant is under the loop and it would be captured soon.
Karuppan had destroyed acres of agricultural crops and is also alleged to have killed two people but Forest Department officials had said that it has to be ascertained whether this particular elephant was behind the deaths.
The Tamil Nadu Forest Department is planning to tranquilize the elephant and to either radio collar it and redeploy to deep forests or to keep it at an elephant training centre and convert it into a ‘kumki’ elephant.
‘Pandalur Makhana’, a male elephant without tusks that created major destruction in Gudalur areas of Tamil Nadu was captured, radio-collared, and deployed in the deep forest. However, the elephant traveled around 170 km and reached the adjacent Kerala. It was darted with a tranquilizer and captured by the Kerala Forest Department a week ago. Now the elephant is in the Muthanga Elephant rehabilitation centre to be converted into a kumki elephant.
–IANS
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