Wild elephant evades capture, runs into forest

ERODE: Efforts of a 100-member forest department team to capture wild elephant Karuppan went in vain on Friday as the animal attacked them and ran into the forest at Malkothipuram village near Thalavadi in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR).

The principal conservator of wild life recently issued the order to tranquilise and capture Karuppan, which has been intruding into human habitations in Thalavadi, Hasanur and Jeerahalli for the past two months. Besides damaging crop and property, the elephant is suspected to have killed two farmers, a forest department officer said.

The operation to catch the elephant started on Thursday, with STR field director K Rajkumar, deputy director Devendra Kumar Meena leading the team. The elephant was spotted in a farmland in Malkothipuram around 9 pm on Thursday, the officer said.

“We prevented the elephant from entering the forest till 5.30 am on Friday. A group of 100 people participated in this. We tried to surround the elephant to shoot the tranquiliser dart, but the elephant started to run away and attacked some of the team members. But no one was harmed. While fleeing into the forest, the elephant attacked a cow standing in the way,” the officer explained.

“As it was 5.30 am in the morning, the villagers had started coming out of their houses. When the elephant came to know the movement of the public, it ran away. We could not do anything about it. But the elephant remains under surveillance. The next attempt to capture it will be made on Saturday. Kumki elephants Kaleem, Raja and Kapildev are on standby,” the officer added.