A 60-year-old man from Gudalur in the Nilgiris was killed in an elephant attack on December 11. Similarly, a 49-year-old man and his son were trampled to death by a wild elephant near Gudalur on December 13.
A wild male elephant nicknamed 'Shankar' is suspected to have been involved in both these incidents.
The elephant, whose age is estimated to be over 50 years, was included in the category of ‘brash’ elephants in a profiling of the large mammals done by the Forest Department and Shola Trust in the region in 2016.
Brash elephants were one of the four categories of elephants identified in the profiling exercise in which 150 elephants were photographed and profiles for 90 individuals were created.
Elephants in this category, constituting 10% of the total population, were also identified as the ones that attack people and cause damage.
Brash elephants were assessed to exhibit the standard physiological response of ‘flight or fight’ as they are not comfortable around people.
The profile of Shankar, who has a single tusk, became handy for the Forest Department in identifying the elephant.
Shankar was camping at Kottaimalai and three tracking teams of the Department from the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, and the Gudalur Forest Division were observing its movements.
25 camera traps were installed in several locations to track Shankar's movement. The Forest Department also employed drones and four kumkis namely Bomman, Wasim, Kaleem and Vijay to track the tusker.
Efforts made to tranquillise and capture Shankar went in vain as the animal was guarded by other elephants.
Though the elephant was administered with an initial dose of tranquilliser, 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.
Forest Department officials suspect that the animal might have moved into Kerala. Shankar was previously 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.
