Two kumkis roped in for ‘Operation Black’ to capture wild tusker Karuppan in Erode

ERODE: The district forest officers are all set to resume ‘Operation Black’ to capture wild tusker ‘Karuppan’ after a failed mission on January 14, when the animal was thrice darted with sedatives, but only to escape to the reserve forest.
On Sunday, they brought two kumkis from Theppakkadu elephant camp in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve to assist them in the mission to capture the tusker that killed two men when it first strayed into the plains from the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) a year ago.
The officers said they were planning to resume the ‘Operation Black’, which was launched on January 11, in a couple of days. It is to be noted that the operation was launched by Hasanur forest division officers with the help of three kumkis. “On January 14, we darted the tusker with tranquilizers thrice. However, ‘Karuppan’ managed to go inside the forest. We traced the tusker for the next three days, but with little success. Subsequently, we dropped the operation,” one of the officers told TOI.
K Rajkumar, conservator and field director, STR, said the operation was temporarily dropped, considering the elephant’s health. “Had we darted it with more tranquilizers, the tusker might have died.”
He said the forest field staff have been closely monitoring ‘Karuppan’ all the while. “It is currently camping at Maharajanpuram hamlet near Thalavadi.”
This time, he said, kumkis ‘Bomman’ and ‘Sujai’ would assist the forest officers to capture ‘Karuppan’.
Pointing out that the tusker was chased away into the deep forest with the help of three kumkis after it killed Malappa of Dharmapuram and Madeva of Joraikadu and started raiding standing crops in Jeerahalli and Thalavadi forest ranges a year ago, another forest officer said ‘Karuppan’ returned to the plains in the second week of December 2022. “It started raiding standing crops in Jeerahalli forest range. Hence, we decided to capture the tusker and relocate it to some other forest range in STR,” he said.