Kaggalipura range forest officer Varun Kumar SV told TOI, "It appears as if the tusker entered the CRPF camp on road after crossing a forest checkpost. It could have lost its way, and entered the camp in search of water and food. It has now found its way into the forest by crossing the railway barrier erected along the forest border. In fact, the barrier is meant to prevent elephants from leaving the forest. But this elephant appears to have learnt how to scale the barrier - it used a boulder to climb and jumped over."
Foresters are now tracing the footprints of the wild tusker to see where it's headed. Queried about plans to raise the height of the barrier, in view of other instances of jumbos straying into human habitats in Bannerghata and Nagarahole, Varun said, "We've cleared bushes and rocks near the barrier so they don't cross over again. There are only a few vulnerable points along the length of the barrier that need to be fixed."
A senior forest department official said that they had not received any instructions to capture the elephant."The elephant is back in the forest now. We will track its movements. But, we have no plans of capturing it for now," she added.
Another senior forest official said that the department had collected details of the family members of the two CRPF men. "Compensation will be paid to them soon," he said.
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