TIRUPATI: Forest officials of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) were given special training on how to drive away tuskers into the forests after a couple of incidents of wild elephants from the Seshachalam forest ranges entering into human habitat were reported.
The training session was conducted recently by eminent elephant psychologist Dr Rudra Aditya from Himachal Pradesh. A class on theory was conducted in the morning, a field session on how to tackle elephant menace was taken up in the evening.
Dr Rudra Aditya explained to the forest officials that making noise or throwing stones at the tuskers, when they enter the human habitat, will not help them.
Demonstrating as to how to drive away from the pachyderms, Dr Rudra Aditya displayed a procedure of making smoke with dried chillies in gunny bags and then tying them to a bamboo stick, each in a gap of ten metres. "The smell of spice from the burning chillies would help drive the animals away, he said.