- Specialist team, led by Chief Forest Vet Surgeon Arun Zachariah arrives in Palakkad from Wayanad
- In the past year, the wild elephant was in human-inhabited areas for 188 days
- It was involved in 176 incidents of crop raids & 13 incidents of property damage, says a report of Forest Department
Palakkad: A team of forest officials has arrived from Wayanad to chemically immobilise and take back a wild elephant raiding crops, destroying properties, and charging at humans in Palakkad.
Chief Forest Veterinary Officer Arun Zachariah and members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) from Wayanad Wildlife Division have identified the location of the elephant, said Palakkad Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Kurra Srinivas.
The vet will fire the drugged dart to induce narcosis only after a team of trackers will guide the elephant to a conducive terrain accessible by truck. If needed, trained kumki elephants can also be brought in from Wayanad.
"Before that, I will have to make a kraal (wooden enclosure) to take the elephant to Wayanad," said Dr Zachariah. The operation may take two to three weeks, he said.
The Palakkad tusker identified as PT-7 was on the radar of the Forest Department for its "aggressive behaviour" for the past several years. But Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Ganga Singh took the decision to translocate PT-7 to the Elephant Camp at Muthanga in Wayanad after the tusker charged at a rubber tapper at Dhoni in Palakkad's Akathethara grama panchayat on November 24.
Joseph (55), a native of Chalakudy, was tapping rubber when the elephant threateningly rumbled at him around 6 am. "He tripped while running away and broke his right arm," said Mohanan, vice-president of Akathethara panchayat and member of Dhoni ward. The attack triggered public protest in the panchayat.
Before this, a morning walker, Sivaraman (60), was trampled to death by an elephant in the paddy fields of Dhoni on July 7, 2022. DFO Srinivas said the Forest Department could not identify the elephant which killed Sivaraman.
But the official said that PT-7 was involved in another conflict with humans at Korma on December 17, 2021. "A person was injured when he ran away from the elephant," he said.
An internal report of the Forest Department said PT-7 is "the tusker to watch out for in the future due to its aggressive behaviour".
Its behaviour is erratic because "it has not received adequate hand-holding" from adult bulls, it said.
The report was prepared after the Rapid Response Team of Palakkad led by deputy range forest officer C Rajith Babu observed the elephant from March 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.
Of the 396 days, the elephant was spotted foraging in human-inhabited areas in 188 days, or nearly half of the year, said the report. It was involved in 176 incidents of crop damage, 13 incidents of property damage and one incident of hurting a person, said the report.
"The behaviour of PT-7 has changed drastically and has started charging repeatedly at watchers during driving operations," it said. The elephant frequently broke physical barriers such as solar fences and hanging fences.
Dr Zachariah said his team had immobilised and translocated several elephants. The Elephant Camp at Muthanga now has 12 such rescued elephants. The challenge in such missions is to get the right dose of narcotics to immobilise the animal, he said.