PALAKKAD: Two kumki elephants, Pomman and Wasim, were brought to Mundur around 6 pm on Friday from Mudumalai sanctuary in Tamil Nadu to chase away the three wild elephants which had strayed into the populated areas of Palakkad and the borders of Thrissur a week ago, into the Siruvani or Nilambur forests.The kumki elephants were brought to Mundur after a six-hour journey from the sanctuary. In the morning, a special team from Wayanad successfully drove away the rogue elephants from Mankara to Kayaramkode on the Palakkad-Kozhikode route near Kalladikode forests.
Traffic along the busy Palakkad-Kozhikode route via Mannarkad was halted around 8 am in the hope the elephants will cross the road and move into the Kalladikode forests. Traffic was allowed from 9 am after this did not happen. Around 4.30pm, the roads were blocked again. The officers’ initial bid to chase away the elephants was spoiled by the presence of more than 500 people who crowded the roads in a bid to catch a glimpse of the elephants crossing the road.
District Collector P Marykutty, Ottappalam sub collector P B Nooh, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife-Eastern circle) Chandrasekharan, DFO Samuel Pachaau and SP Pratheesh Kumar visited Kayaramkode to take stock of the developments. Hundreds of forest personnel were posted at the area to prevent any untoward incident.
The elephants had been in Mankara on Thursday evening and were chased away across the railway tracks. The pachyderms reached Muchiri hills near Kongad on Friday morning.
They crossed the roads at Kayaramkode only to return again. The Forest Department had engaged jeeps to announce the presence of the wild elephants at Olavakkode and Puduppariyaram areas.