KRISHNAGIRI: 'Mariappan', a kumki used to capture wild jumbo 'Chinna Thambi', came here on Friday from Sadivayal elephant camp in Coimbatore.
The kumki was brought here to Hosur and now kept in Gopachandaram forest nursery for the task of darting and relocating two wild tuskers which pose a nightmare to forest staffs and local villagers.
A male elephant with one long tusk and the other which is half-broken has entered Hosur forests along with another tusker, a few months back. They stayed here in the Kelavarapalli dam before a small herd of two male elephants migrated to neighbouring Karnataka state.
There, the tusker with the broken tusk, nick-named 'crow bar' by forest officials, killed farmer Annayappa (50) on Wednesday at Thiruvarangam village, in Karnataka. The victim was trampled to death when he was watching the jumbo drive.
‘Crow bar’ was spotted again with its friend at Singasathanapalli village of Hosur taluk, in Krishnagiri.
“We thought that ‘crow bar’ and its friend would settle down in the Karnataka forests, but they returned again to Hosur when our department was about to drop plans of relocating them," a forest staff said.
The source added, "This is for the second time that 'crow bar' will be relocated after being tranquilized. Earlier, the animal was given sedation darts and relocated to Hogenakkal after the tusker killed three persons in two days at Chinnar. This operation was conducted in February 2018."
The operation to dart the animals will begin only after another kumki reaches here from the Sadivayal camp.
A team of doctors including Krishnagiri forest department veterinarian A. Prakash is studing the health conditions of the animals that need to be tranquilized.
