A wild elephant, nicknamed Karuppan, whom the Forest Department failed to capture and translocate, entered farmlands again, and damaged banana and sugarcane crops at the Jeerahalli forest range in Erode district on Saturday.
Farmers said that the elephant has moved from forest areas in Diginarai and entered Rangaswamy Kovil, Kalmandipuram and Erahanahalli areas on Friday night and damaged crops and fences well into Saturday morning, and then returned to the Joraikadu forest area. They said the elephant had once again caused extensive damage to crops demanded that compensation to be given to them.
Karuppan has been damaging crops in the Talavadi and Jeerahalli Forest Ranges, which fall under the Hasanur Division of the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), since the end of December. The Forest Department planned an operation, ‘Operation Black’ to capture the animal, fix a radio collar on it and then translocate it. Three kumkis, Kapil Dev, Muthu and Kaleem, were deployed from Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), and over 100 Forest Department staff were involved in the operation. However, efforts to tranquilize the pachyderm failed, as, in the last attempt made, the elephant was darted but did not get completely sedated, and went deep into the forest.
The Forest Department subsequently suspended the operation, stating that the use of another medicine would be studied for the initiative.
S. Yuva Bharath, general secretary of the Talavadi Farmers’ Association, wanted the operation to capture the elephant to commence from February 7 or 8, as farmers fear for their lives, apart from the damage to the crop. “The Forest Department had assured farmers that an alternative medicines for tranquilizing the elephant would arrive on February 6,” he recalled and wanted an efficient team comprising experienced veterinarians to resume the operation.
