Forest dept installs 4 camera traps to monitor sick tusker

Coimbatore: To monitor the movement of a sick male elephant, the forest department installed four camera traps at Anaikatti in Periyanaickenpalayam forest range on Friday. The tusker was spotted on the banks of Kodunthurai Pallam stream near Anaikatti north beat on August 16. The next day, the elephant was spotted at Tholampalayam, where it charged toward trackers who attempted to approach it. The elephant joined with two tuskers.
On Wednesday morning, the field staff were not able to trace the movement of the elephant. But later, they spotted it again with a herd of wild elephants at the Tholampalayam. However, on Friday, they lost a trace of the sick male animal.
“We have installed four camera traps at Anaikatti on Friday evening to monitor the movement of the elephant. We have stationed two kumki elephants, Kaleem and Arisi Raja alias Muthu, at Kopanari. Due to heavy rain in the reserve forest, our teams were not able to carry out the search in the evening. We will start to monitor the movement of the elephant on Saturday morning,” district forest officer TK Ashok Kumar said.