Jumbo Vinayakan’s radio collar found abandoned

Ooty: To the shock of the foresters the Radio Collar apparatus tied to crop raider Vinayakan, who was captured from Thadagam region in Coimbatore and relocated to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in December 2018, was found abandoned deep inside the woods in MTR.

Recall the nuisance and menace created by Vinayakan in Thadagam limits that lead to public unrest, which ultimately forced the foresters to capture and relocate this well-built wild tusker to MTR woods.

This jumbo was radio-collared after being captured.  This was to enable the forest team to continuously monitor the movement of this jumbo using GPRS system to give alert in case if it tried to stray near the human settlements.

Though all these days this jumbo proved to be a cool-customer, now for the past couple of weeks, it proved to be problematic for foresters as it divested of its radio-collar apparatus tied around its neck thus making its tracking tough for the forest team.

Mr. K.K. Kaushal, field director of MTR, talking to DC, said that about 20 days back the signals stopped to arrive from the radio collar of the jumbo.  “The forest team which went inside the woods in search of this jumbo found that the radio collar apparatus was lying abandoned.  After investigation it was tentatively concluded the jumbo could have shed its weight that made the radio collar to fall down or it would have fallen down when the jumbo vigorously scratched it against a tree there.  Since, Vinayagan is well adapted to the jungle environs, one need not panic about its straying into human settlements.  We are watching the situation,” he added.