BENGALURU: The tusker which killed one man and injured another on Tuesday, near Bandipur Tiger Reserve, will be captured and shifted to Sakrebyle Elephant Camp near Shivamogga. The order was issued by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests on Wednesday, GV Ranga Rao, Director, Project Elephant, told TNIE. He said the operation started on Wednesday. Researchers said that while it was the need of the hour, because this elephant had killed two people in the past too, it was not an ideal solution.
R Sukumar, elephant expert and researcher at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, said, “Between 10-15 years, young tuskers leave their maternal herd and explore new places and new groups to enhance the gene pool. But in this case, the tusker joined other herds for very short durations and was mostly found with all-male groups, which only taught him how to raid crops.”
The elephant, aged around 12 years, was radio-collared by Tamil Nadu forest officials in August, and the collar was supplied by IISc. Since then, the bull was being tracked. But connection was lost because of the heavy downpour in and around Bandipur over the past few days. It seems the elephant wandered out of the forest and raided crops, Sukumar said.
Forest officials said the tusker was first sighted last year in the Tamil Nadu forests near Mudumalai, and had raided crops and killed two people along the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. Tamil Nadu forest officials decided to radio-collar the bull and put him 200km away from the location, so that he settled down. He was shifted deep inside Mudumalai but around 15 days later, the young bull moved towards Bandipur and Gopalaswamy Betta.
Officials said that before the bull was radio-collared, he was very aggressive. In the past two months, there were no signs of aggression and he was found interacting with other groups, including all-male groups. But he soon wandered off and raided crops, which led to the death of a farmer who was throwing stones at him, and another who was trying to take a selfie with him.
Sukumar said these young tuskers should be controlled at an early age when they start raiding and venturing out, and relocated to areas with few males.
Researchers also found that tuskers raid crops because food makes them more aggressive and prolongs their musth (a large rise in reproductive hormones) which increases their probability of getting more females. The young bulls are said to have understood this well.
Ajay Desai, another elephant expert, said that proper tracking of radio-collared elephants is crucial. “It was also found that young tuskers follow the tracks left behind by older tuskers, assuming there is something to explore. This is a classic case of delayed intervention,” he said.