Attempt to tranquilize wild elephant goes in vain in TN

ERODE: On the third day of ‘Operation Black’ to capture a wild tusker named ‘Karuppan’, Jeerahalli forest range officers on Saturday managed to dart the elephant with tranquilizers thrice, but in vain.

K Rajkumar, conservator and the field director of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), said the tusker managed to escape into the forest after it was darted with tranquilizers. He said efforts were on to locate the elephant.

“Around 4.30am, the tusker entered a sugarcane field at Eriyapuram in Thalavadi forest range. Forest officials rushed to the spot with veterinarians and darted the tusker with tranquilizers twice. The elephant regained its consciousness in an hour and headed to the forest. The team managed to trace the tusker again and dart it with another dose of tranquilizer. It didn’t have any effect on the elephant,” he said.

The veterinarians, Rajkumar said, hinted that the elephant might die if it were to be darted with another dose of tranquilizer. “Hence, we didn’t attempt the same for the fourth time.”

Three kumkis - Kapil Dev, Arisi Raja and Kalim - are part of ‘Operation Black’, which commenced in the early hours of Thursday. They were brought to Jeerahalli forest range from Pollachi a few days ago.

The tusker had killed two men - Malappa, of Dharmapuram, and Madeva, of Joraikadu - when it first strayed into the plains from STR a year ago. It also damaged standing crops in Jeerahalli and Thalavadi forest ranges. Forest officials then chased the tusker away into the deep forest with the help of three kumkis.

The tusker returned to the plains in the second week of December and started raiding standing crops in Jeerahalli forest range and chasing away the villagers. “Hence, we decided to capture the tusker and relocate it to some other forest range in STR,” another forest officer said.