ALAPUZHA: More than 12 hours after an elephant jumped off a truck and tried to flee, vets, mahouts and foresters in Kerala were waging a Herculean battle to extricate the animal from a swamp it got stuck in.
The tusker Mullackal Balakrishnan, owned by the Travancore Devaswom Board, jumped off a truck in which he was being transported back home from a festival at the Thrikkakara Vamanamoorthi temple. He ran amok into a marshy area and got stuck in a mire.
According to Kuthiyatodu circle inspector K Sajeev, Mullackal Balakrishnan made his move for freedom in the still of the night at 3.30 am. A little after the driver of the lorry stopped to have a cup of tea at Valamangalam on NH 66, he dislodged the barricade erected on the lorry and jumped down. He ran for more than 6 km, destroying an autorickshaw, an electric post and the compound walls of few houses. Reaching Ananthankari, a waterlogged area, he got trapped in a marsh.
Around 30 mahouts from the Devaswom Board were called in to save the animal. They used various methods to encourage him to heave himself out of the swamp but in vain. Additional district magistrate M K Kabir said late in the afternoon several government departments and mahouts have joined the operation to save Mullackal Balakrishnan.
“The land is swampy with lagoons and bunds. Veterinary doctors are injecting glucose to save its life,” he said.