ROURKELA: With three solitary tuskers posing threat to human lives and property in Bonai forest division of the district, forest officials radio-collared two of them while efforts are underway to cover the third jumbo by Wednesday night.
Sources in the Forest department said one of the problematic elephants was successfully tranquillised and radio-collared at a forest patch of Dharani Dhar Palli section under Bonai forest range in the wee hours of the day.
The entire exercise was carried out under the guidance of PCCF (Wildlife) & CWLW Susanta Nanda and RCCF, Rourkela circle, Rourkela with support from the veterinary unit, Similipal (South) division, veterinary unit, Rourkela forest division and RRT team, Kapilash wildlife sanctuary. Forest officials of all the six ranges were engaged in the operation.
Around 15 days back, another troublesome jumbo was successfully fitted with radio transmitter in Koida forest range of Bonai forest division. Forest officials said efforts have been initiated to radio collar the third tusker. On September 3, the same tusker had killed a person at Kulkuta village of the same range during a drive.
Stressing the rising cases of human-elephant conflict, Bonai divisional forest officer (DFO) Lalit Patra said the radio collaring programme has been taken up to effectively monitor movement of problematic elephants and prevent any unfortunate incidents.
“The initiative would provide real-time position data of the radio-collared problematic jumbos and help in alerting villagers to prevent loss of human lives and property,” he added.
Incidentally, two solitary tuskers with frequent depredation history in the Koida and Bonai forest ranges for the last couple of years have made life miserable for the villagers, while another jumbo after separating from its herd in recent months has been causing additional problem in Bonai range.
Sources said at least seven persons were killed in elephant attacks in Bonai forest division between April and September this year. Similarly, around 12 persons lost their lives due to the same between April 2023 and March 2024 with most deaths caused by solitary tuskers.
With radio collaring of the problematic elephants, plans to translocate the tuskers have seemingly been shelved for now.