Elephant from Maharashtra strays into Belagavi, roams for 10 hours

Through the collar ID of the tusker, the forest officials identified it to be from a jungle in Maharashtra

Belagavi : A huge sized tusker was spotted roaming in the localities of Belagavi on Friday.

Officials said, the fully grown tusker, was first seen by morning walkers in Kangrali BK town around 6am. (Hindustan Times)

Through the collar ID of the tusker, the forest officials identified it to be from a jungle in Maharashtra.

“The tusker had entered into Belagavi localities through Bekkinkeri forest zone. Based on the collar ID affixed to it, we identified it was from Maharashtra and so it was sent back to the forest of the state and the officials were informed,” said SK Kallolikar, the deputy conservator of forest of Belagavi.

Officials said, the fully grown tusker, was first seen by morning walkers in Kangrali BK town around 6am. Later, it entered into thickly populated localities like Azam Nagar, Shahu Nagar and its surrounding localities.

“If the animal created havoc, it could have been difficult controlling it,” said a district forest officer (DFO).

The large sized elephant which had also entered into a locality near an English medium school near Vaibhav Nagar got stuck in a narrow width road. However, after struggling for a few minutes, it became successful in coming out, said the officials.

Soon after coming out of the lane, officials said, the elephant pulled out a seat cover of a two-wheeler and threw it at a distance. It, however, did not touch any parked vehicles on the roads.

The elephant roamed in Bekkinkeri village and other surrounding areas till 4pm before the forest officials finally managed to drive it back to the forest from where it entered, added the DFO.

Based on the information provided by forest watchers, DCF Kallolikar said, “The same tusker enters Karnataka once a year, mainly in Kakati, Hatti and Bekkinkeri forest areas and after roaming for 7-8 days, leaves back to Maharashtra. For the first time it arrived in Belagavi.”

He added that the department was ready with anesthetic injection pistols if the elephant went rash. “People obeyed our instructions like not shouting and going near it which helped the department to drive it back without any trouble,” the officer said.