Forest officials, tribals contain forest fire, elephants saved

A major tragedy involving the lives of 30 elephants was averted by the forest officials and the tribals Sunday as they prevented a forest fire from spreading to the elephant camp at Theppakkadu in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR). The fire broke out in the forest area on the Theppakkadu-Masinagudi Road coming under the reserve and spread to nearly 100 acres of the area, sources in the forest department said.

About 30 forest officials, along with over 100 tribals, including women and children, joined in the efforts to put the fire out, which spread to a spot just 100 metres from the elephant camp, the sources said. Meanwhile, the forest fire in Bandipura in Karnataka bordering Tamil Nadu that has been raging since Saturday evening has been brought under control, they said.

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JUMBO OPERATION TRAPS WILD ELEPHANT

Vinayagan, the tusker, was sent to Mudumalai
In an operation that lasted around nine hours, the Forest Department on Tuesday tranquillised and captured Vinayagan, the wild elephant which has been frequently entering human habitations in the Thadagam valley in Coimbatore.

The elephant, which has been tagged with GPS and a very high frequency transmitter, was to be translocated to a forest area of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), which is close to the Bandipur National Park and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, late on Tuesday.

The elephant was first spotted in the forest fringes at Mangarai near Anaikatti, around 20 km from Coimbatore city, in the early hours on Tuesday. The tusker travelled around 4 km and reached near human settlements at Periyathadagam around 6 a.m. when N.S. Manoharan, Regional Joint Director of Veterinary Services, darted the first dose of tranquilliser on the animal.

The animal further moved around 1 km towards a hill where the second round of tranquilliser was darted. With the elephant sedated, the Forest Department staff tied ropes around its legs and neck for loading on to the specially designed truck for transporting elephants.

Though the Forest Department employed two ‘kumkis’, namely Wasim and Vijay from MTR, to push and load Vinayagan to the truck, the gigantic tusker, weighing roughly 4.5 tonnes, stood firm at least for two hours. An earth mover was then used to pull the tusker onto the truck at 2.45 p.m. A third round of mild sedation was given for easy transportation of the animal to Mudumalai, around 150 km away from where it was captured.

Deepak Srivastava, Assistant Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, said that the Department had plans to capture and translocate Chinna Thambi, another wild elephant.

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