After two laborious days, officials of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) on Tuesday radio-collared a wild tusker that had been ravaging farms in human settlements of the WWS for the past many months.
“This is for the second time that a wild elephant has been fixed with a radio collar telemeter in standing posture in the sanctuary with the assistance of two ‘kumki’ or trained elephants,” warden N.T. Sajan, told The Hindu .
The hard task of tracking down and putting the collar around the neck of the jumbo was done in view of the increase in cases of human-animal conflict reported from the Vadakkanad area under the sanctuary. The tusker, which is about 25 years old, has been identified a regular crop raider in the Sulthan Bathery and Kurichyad forest ranges under the sanctuary.
An expert team, which followed the animal, first took the biometrical measurements of the jumbo before fixing the collar on its neck, said Mr. Sajan, who led the team. The 21-member team took around four hours to complete the task. The operation remained unsuccessful in the first two days because of the terrain. When two more young tuskers joined the pachyderm on the second day, it made the task more difficult. However, the team finally zeroed in on the herd and identified the animal in the morning near the Pathekkar tribal settlement at Vadakkanad.
The area was cordoned off and warning shots fired to keep the rest of the tuskers at bay. The first tranquilliser dart was applied on the animal around 8.05 a.m. followed by a top-up dose at 9.20 a.m.
During the 40 minutes the animal had been under sedation, the team fixed the radio collar and activated it. Soon veterinary officers injected a drug to revive it. The entire operation was over in 50 minutes and the animal started heading back into the forest after two hours.
Four forest watchers were deputed to watch the movement of the animal for the next 24 hours. The radio collar would help in tracking the animal’s movement and preventing it from entering human habitations and causing loss of crops and lives, he added.
The World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) is gearing up to to fix radio collars on more wild elephants in Wayanad wildlife sanctuary with the support of State Forest Department to mitigate man-animal conflict in the region.
“We have submitted a proposal to the Forest and Wildlife Department to fix radio collar on six rogue elephants,” said D. Boominathan, coordinator, Western Ghat Nilgiris landscape, WWF.
