The Forest Department has started a hunt for two men who provoked a wild elephant and shot a video of the same at a brickkiln, suspected to be in Coimbatore outskirts.
Forest officials said that they are carrying out an extensive search in the Thadagam area where more than 100 brickkilns are functional.
The 44-second video shows a man teasing and provoking a female wild elephant in a kiln. It starts with the man being chased by the elephant into a shed used for drying bricks. The man immediately gets out of the shed even as the elephant gets stuck. Then he provokes the wild animal by going close to it. Though the elephant attempts to charge, it ends up hitting its head on the horizontal concrete pole used for the roofing. The voice of the man who shot the video can be also heard in the background: he is heard encouraging his friend by saying “It won't come...be patient.”
S. Ramasubramanian, Conservator of Forests, said that the department was conducting extensive search at the brickkilns in Coimbatore to identify the place and the men involved. “Action will be taken against them under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act,” he said. District Forest Officer N. Satheesh said, “The location seems to be a brickkiln in the Thadagam area but the locals are denying it.”
