Efforts made by the Forest Department on Wednesday to tranquillise and capture a male elephant nicknamed ‘Shankar’, which killed three persons in Gudalur in the Nilgiris recently, went in vain on Wednesday as the animal was guarded by other elephants.
Though the elephant was administered with an initial dose of tranquilliser in the afternoon, veterinarians could not shoot a dart with a top up dose in time due to the difficult terrain and the presence of the elephant herd.
Officials who took part in the operation said that a herd consisting of three male elephants, five female elephants and a calf guarded the tusker after the first dart hit it.
“Two female elephants escorted the tusker after it was given the first dart. The veterinarians could not approach the tusker to administer a top up dart due to the presence of the herd,” said I. Anwardeen, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Coimbatore Circle, who oversaw the operation with D. Gurusamy, District Forest Officer of Nilgiris Forest Division (in-charge of Gudalur division).
N.S. Manoharan, Regional Joint Director of Veterinary Services (retired), shot the dart at the tusker at Cheppanthodu near Cherambadi at 2.24 p.m.
“After the first dart was shot, the tusker moved to a difficult area of the forest. Trackers from the department could not restrain its movement due to the presence of the herd,” said A. Sukumar, Forest Veterinary Officer of Coimbatore Forest Division.
Though the department used a drone to monitor the darted tusker and scare other elephants using its buzzing sound, the herd stood firm.
Due to the delay caused in administering the second shot of tranquilliser, the tusker revived from the sedation induced by the first shot within an hour and the department was forced to halt the operation in the evening.
The department has planned to bring in one more kumki named Vijay from Theppakadu camp of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve to the location on Thursday for the operation. There kumkis -- Bomman and Wasim from Theppakadu and Kaleem from Kozhikamuthi camp of Anamalai Tiger Reserve -- are already part of the operation.