Elephant captured on the forest fringes released to the core area

Forest Department captures wild elephant causing crop damage in Bandipur, releases it deep inside core area.

An elephant that was repeatedly straying into the human landscape abutting Bandipur and causing crop damage was captured by the Forest Department authorities on Wednesday.

The operation to capture the wild elephant was launched on April 28 following a directive by the PCCF (Wildlife) sometime in March after which the authorities took some time to track and identify the animal in conflict.

A release said the said was trapped and captured at 7 a.m. in the Somanathapura reserve forest coming under G.S. Betta range on Wednesday. The operation to capture the elephant involved the camp elephants led by Ishwar, Kanjan, Srirama, Lakshmana from Dubare and Rohith from Ramapura elephant camp.

The elephants took part in the combing operations and helped the members of the leopard task force, forest guards, and others to corner the wild elephant that was causing crop damage to farmers of Hangala, Kalegowdanahalli, and Devarahalli for the last 6 months.

After its capture and medical examination it transpired that the elephant was a male aged around 40 years and was healthy. After discussions with the higher authorities the local staff decided to release the elephant deep inside the core area far from human habitation.

Incidentally, the villagers from the region had staged a protest at Bandipur in March during the meeting of senior officials and ministers from Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu to curb human-animal conflict and share information for better coordination. They had sought the capture of the solitary tusker that used to damage the crop following which the Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology Mr. Eshwar Khandre had promised to act on their complaint.