As the operation to tranquillise the wild elephant nicknamed ‘Shankar’ entered its fifth day at Gudalur in the Nilgiris on Friday, Forest Department officials suspect that the animal might have moved into Kerala.
A senior Forest Department official said the tusker was not spotted anywhere within Gudalur on Friday. As per the inputs from a team that visited Nilambur in Kerala, the elephant was spotted within the Nilambur Forest Range in November. Hence, it is now being looked into whether the elephant regularly moved between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he said.
Gudalur District Forest Officer (DFO) Sumesh Soman had alerted the DFOs of Wayanad and Nilambur in Kerala on Thursday evening on the possibility of the elephant’s presence in Kerala. However, there was no confirmation as of Friday regarding the whereabouts of the tusker, according to the official.
Estimated to be around 50 years old, the elephant had killed a man and his son near Gudalur on Sunday. While a team went to Kerala to confirm the elephant’s presence, the Forest Department continued monitoring in and around Gudalur on Friday.
Meanwhile, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Coimbatore Circle) I. Anwardeen met with the kin of the deceased and Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation (Tantea) workers at Gudalur on Friday. The Forest Department will soon issue safety protocol for preventing encounters with wild elephant to the Tantea management as well as the residents living in areas that see frequent movement of elephants, the official said.