The officials of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) is preparing to capture an unruly tusker that has been posing serious threat to people of the Vadakkanad region in the district.
‘Vadakanadu Komban’, aged about 26 years, has been causing panic among people in various hamlets on the forest fringes after it killed a boy on May 30, 2018.
Though the animal had left the area after the incident, it reappeared by December end and started destroying crops. The jumbo, a regular crop-raider in the Sulthan Bathery and Kurichyad ranges under the sanctuary, was fixed with a radio collar telemeter on March 13, 2018, after protests by the villagers.
Though the Chief Wildlife Warden had issued an order on May 30, 2018, to capture the elephant and translocate it to the Muthanga elephant camp, the pachyderm left the area the very next day.
“The jumbo is now located in a forest area at Moodakkolly in the Chethalayath forest range under the South Wayanad forest division” warden N.T. Sajan said.
Closely monitored
“We are closely monitoring its movement by way of signals from its radio collar and all steps have been taken to capture it using tranquiliser darts,” he said.
As many as eight teams, including a five-member medical team led by forest veterinary surgeon Arun Zachariah, had been constituted for the operation and they would be deployed at strategic points, B. Anjan Kumar, Chief Conservator of Forests and Wildlife, Palakkad, told The Hindu after visiting the site on Saturday.
The operation would begin on Sunday morning and the services of three Kumki elephants — Surya, Neelakandan, and Pramugha — would be utilised, Mr. Anjan Kumar said.
The sanctuary officials have constructed a makeshift kraal at the Muthanga elephant camp under the sanctuary to house the animal.
