By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
The Forest Department attempted to tranquillise a male wild elephant on a forest fringe area near Thondamuthur in Coimbatore district early on Wednesday.
The tusker retracted to the forest after two tranquilliser darts were fired at the animal, out of which one missed the target.
Sources said that trackers of the department were monitoring the tusker for the past several days, after the Chief Wildlife Warden ordered the capture of the animal. The elephant is suspected to have killed four persons in the Coimbatore Forest Division ranges, besides causing damage to crops.
The trackers located the tusker along the forest fringe at Kempanur village near Thondamuthur in the early hours of Wednesday. Additional Director (retd) of Veterinary Services N.S. Manoharan and Forest Veterinary Officer E. Vijayaraghavan from the Anamalai Tiger Reserve tailed the elephant along with frontline staff.
The veterinarians fired two darts loaded with sedative at the elephant. While one dart hit the elephant, the other slid off its posterior as the animal started moving towards the forest.
Though trackers followed the tusker to the forest, it moved quickly and disappeared. The department later used a drone for surveillance and found that three more elephants were present in the forest area, limiting further tracking of the target.
Sources added that the tusker, called by some of the locals as ‘Rolex’, follows a routine of entering agricultural lands at night and returning to forest before the crack of dawn. As darting is not possible during dark hours and in human populated areas, the department team has been waiting for a right opportunity to sedate the animal on an ideal terrain near forest boundary, away from human habitations.
