Wild jumbo kills 1 more before being subdued

Coimbatore: The district forest officials successfully tranquilized the much-feared rogue elephant, but the delay in operation has claimed one more life.

On Monday, relatives recovered the dead body of K. Devan who ventured out of his house on Sunday night despite a warning by the forest staff.

Devan is the third victim killed by the single elephant creating havoc in villages surrounding Chinnar near Shoolagiri on the Chennai-Bengaluru national highway in Krishnagiri district.

The 70-year-old V. Rajappa of Bathirakottai village was the first victim and Muniraj of Oddaiyanoor village, the second. On Monday, local
villagers spotted the wild animal at Oddaiyanoor and called the forest staff. Prakash, wildlife veterinarian of Krishnagiri released the first two darts at around 11.20 am from a double barrelled dart gun used for the first time in the state.
One of the two darts punctured the hard skin of the elephant and injected the sedative into its body.

Sources said the elephant was disturbed because of the onlookers who came to watch the operation, and moved into the forest from Oddaiynoor to be found at Melumalai where it was tranquilized successfully with two more injections. A fourth injection was given to calm down the animals in a semi-conscious state, when it tried to charge at forest staff and others. Two earth moving machines were used to give support to the animal to walk till the ambulance parked on the
Chennai-Bengaluru national highway.

The ambulance is  specially designed truck meant for transporting
elephants during an emergency. The captured elephant was transported to Biligundulu along the course of the Cauvery from where the river enters Tamil Nadu from neighboring Karnataka.

According to Forest department officials, the newly formed Cauvery North wildlife sanctuary, 150-km from Chinnar, will become the new home for the elephant that was relocated from the Rayakottai forest range.