NILGIRIS: A 37-year-old Anti Poaching Watcher (APW), who was about to take part in post-monsoon wildlife census from Tuesday, was injured in a wild elephant attack, at Masinagudi forest range in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) on Monday evening.
The injured has been identified as B Maaran and the incident occurred when he and three other field-level staff were proceeding to Kootruparai APW camp where they would be staying on Monday night and would be involved in estimation of wildlife and its habitat from Tuesday, under the seven-day pre-monsoon exercises.
Forest sources said though the elephant was standing 50 metres away from them, it suddenly made a run towards them at 4.30 pm, causing panic. As a result, while the others managed to escape, Maaran was unexpectedly kicked by the animal, and escaped with grievous injuries.
After getting first aid at Masinagudi primary health centre, he was taken to Udhagamandalam government hospital for treatment where the doctors referred him to get a scan of his head.
A forest official added that Maaran was out of danger, but some of his teeth were broken and he was injured on his hand and hip. The official said that staff will be engaged in enumerating herbivores and carnivores and assessing their habitat from tuesday, until November 25. For this, a training programme was held at Theppakkadu training centre on Monday.
The official said that a total of 37 transect lines have been earmarked for estimation at core areas (Karkudi, Masinagudi, Theppakkadu , Mudumalai and Nilakottai) of MTR and over 100 staff will be engaged in the estimation using the ‘M stripe’ app.