Forest Department personnel continued to be on their toes with the elephant herd, which wandered into Siddaramanahundi in the wee hours of Tuesday, unable to find its way back to the forest four days on. On Friday, the elephants reached Varakodu village from Mahadevapura, about 15 km from Mysuru.
The five elephants, including three tuskers, went back to the same village — Kempaiyyanahundi — where they were first sighted after straying out from the forest near Kollegal on Tuesday. The jumbos entered Kempaiyannahundi around 3 a.m. on Friday and stayed put.
To prevent any untoward incident, the forest staff burst crackers and created loud sounds to drive them away from human habitation. They managed to get them away from the village around 6 a.m.
With the operation becoming increasingly difficult, the department has summoned staff from neighbouring districts and Bandipur and Nagarahole tiger reserves to ensure that the jumbos are back home by Friday night.
Looks like a long haul
“It is turning out to be one of the longest operations to drive elephants back into the forest,” said Deputy Conservator of Forests (Mysuru) Karikalan.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone from T. Narsipur, Mr. Karikalan said, “We have managed to bring them to the river and the herd is walking along Kapila river. On both sides of the river, our staff, with police support, is keeping guard so that they (elephants) don’t enter human habitation again.”
The water is shallow and if the elephants continue to move along the river, they might reach Kaggalipura, from where they can go back to their forest since the route seems to be familiar to them, the DCF explained.
