COIMBATORE: Forest officials tranquillized and captured the wild elephant Chinnathambi on Friday that was causing damage to the crops in and around Thadagam and Pannimadai regions in Coimbatore. 

After tranquillizing and capturing, Vinayagam, one of the two wild elephants, forest officials planned to capture the second wild elephant Chinna Thambi that was reportedly raiding the crops near Thadagam region.

On Friday morning at around 6, forest officials managed first attempted to dart the elephant, however, as the target missed, the attempt went in vain. Subsequently, around 6.15am, forest officials successfully tranquillized the elephant. 

Nevertheless, as the tranquillized tusker elephant was with a female elephant and a calf, forest officials struggled for about two hours to separate the tusker by chasing away the mother and calf elephant.

Meanwhile, as the elephant slowly regained its normal state, again the elephant was darted. 

Once, the tusker Chinnathambi was separated, forest officials then brought the elephant under their control with the help of the Kumkis Kaleem and Vijay. The officials also fixed the radio collar around the Tusker's neck to monitor its movement after translocating it to another reserve forest.

Until, 11.30am, Forest officials were on the process of loading the elephant into a lorry to translocate the elephant.

Speaking to the reporters here, Conservator Deepak Srivatsava told that they have tranquillized and would translocate the tusker to another forest reserve. "The decision to tranquillize the elephant was taken only after observing its behavioural changes. The tusker has started to eat from grocery items in ration shops and in the houses in Thadagam and Panmimadai region," he said.

The tusker Vinayagam that was translocated to Mudhumalai forest area, last month is active there and we are still receiving the details of its movement in the region. Similarly, we would also monitor the movement of Chinna Thambi, after translocating it," he added.