The wild elephant that sneaked into Sultan Bathery town in Wayanad (north Kerala) district and attacked a person last week was on Monday captured after being tranquillised by the task force of the forest department.
The tusker was later shifted to an elephant training camp.
Chief veterinary officer and darting expert Arun Zachariah received minor injuries later while administering an injection to the captured animal. He was later shifted to hospital. “Code-named PM-2, the radio-collared tusker was sighted by the task force and darted after finding a suitable location,” said state forest minister A K Saseendran.
The 20-year-old tusker was earlier captured by Tamil Nadu forest department after the animal killed two people and attacked many houses in Gudalur (Tamil Nadu) and surrounding places last year. The elephant was released in the wild after putting a radio collar around the animal. But the tusker sneaked into Wayanad later and entered Sultan Bathery town and terrorised many people.
“It was a cumbersome operation that concluded successfully. Though we spotted the elephant on Sunday we could not fire tranquilliser as another jumbo was in the area. Though it charged towards task force members on several occasions, we followed it, darted it and shifted it to the training camp in Muthanga (Wayanad)”, said Wayanad DFO A Shajna. She said training session of the elephant will start after a couple of days.
{{/usCountry}}“It was a cumbersome operation that concluded successfully. Though we spotted the elephant on Sunday we could not fire tranquilliser as another jumbo was in the area. Though it charged towards task force members on several occasions, we followed it, darted it and shifted it to the training camp in Muthanga (Wayanad)”, said Wayanad DFO A Shajna. She said training session of the elephant will start after a couple of days.
{{/usCountry}}Last week, Wayanad district administration had clamped prohibitory orders on many areas of Sultan Bathery after the PM-2 camped near the town. After entering the town on last Friday, it charged towards a pedestrian and knocked him down. But it could not trample him as the railing on the foot path blocked his sudden entry. Later, the elephant also chased a bus of the state road transport corporation.