COIMBATORE: The wild elephant, nicknamed ‘Rolex’, which is suspected of killing three persons and causing crop damages, was captured by the forest department on Friday, after being tranquilised near Thondamuthur in Coimbatore forest division. A forest team, led by veterinarian Kamalakannan captured the tusker and relocated it to the Topslip area in Anaimalai Tiger Reserve (ATR).
It may be noted that the forest department had been attempting to capture the jumbo since September first week, after farmers from Thondamuthur and Narasipuram, located on the foothills of Western Ghats, complained of the tusker damaging their agricultural crops.
On Friday around 2 am, a team of doctors led by veterinarian Kalaivanan, under the supervision of principal chief conservator of forests D Venkatesh, began administering anaesthetic injections to the elephant. Though ‘Rolex’ attempted to escape, Kalaivanan and Rajesh administered two anaesthetics simultaneously, and captured the tusker with the help of four Kumki elephants — Chinnathambi, Kapildev, Wasim and Bomman.
Speaking to TNIE, D Venkatesh, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Coimbatore, said, “The tusker was loaded into a forest department vehicle at 7.45 am and sent to the Varagaliyar elephant camp at Topslip in ATR. The forest department has decided to keep ‘Rolex’ in a kraal and monitor it for a few weeks. After a few days, ‘Rolex’ will be released into the deep forest based on the order of the principal chief conservator of forests.”
Though there is a public claim that four persons were killed by the elephant, DFO said that as per the forest department’s record, it has killed only three. It may be recalled that ‘Rolex’ had also attacked veterinarian Vijayaragavan during a similar capture operation on September 16.