Crop-raiding wild elephant captured in Erode’s Kadambur Hills, translocated to forest

Elephant captured, translocated in Erode: 40-yr-old tusker released in Talamalai Forest Range, STR.

A 40-year-old male elephant, involved in frequent incidents of crop raiding in the Kadambur Hills, Erode district, for several months, was captured on the night of Sunday, July 23, 2023, translocated, and released into a forest in the Talamalai Forest Range, Sathyamangalam Division of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) early on Monday, July 24, 2023. 

Officials said the elephant had been frequently venturing out of the forest and had damaged standing crops in Kadambur, Athiyur, Pavalakuttai and other forest fringe areas of the Kadambur Forest Range. Since this had been going on during the day, farmers had been unable to carry out their work, and had been urging the Forest Department to capture the elephant and translocate it.

Permission was obtained for capturing and translocating the tusker, and a team led by N. Venkatesh Prabhu, District Forest Officer, Erode Division, who also holds additional charge of the Sathyamangalam Division, formulated the strategy with veterinarians, forest rangers and staff. It was decided not to use kumkis for the operation. 

Teams that were tracking the movement of the elephant found the animal on a plot of land located along the Kadambur – Pavalakuttai road and veterinarians, S. Sadasivam from STR and A. Prakash from Hosur fired four tranquillizer darts at it. The elephant was sedated at 7 p.m. on Sunday. The tusker was then loaded onto a hydraulic ambulance with the help of a crane and transported to Talamalai and released. 

This is the second time in STR that an elephant has been captured and translocated successfully. In April 2023, a wild elephant, nicknamed Karuppan, was captured in Talavadi Hills and translocated and released into the interior forest areas of the Thattakarai Forest Range in Erode Division.