One of the two inseparable tusker brothers was radio collared after it was caught for relocation in the early hours of Sunday.
The first dart was injected at around 6.30 am when the tusker named ‘crow bar’ stood on the paddy farm with another tusker at Perandapalli village, on Athimugam-Hosur road, one-km from the Chennai-Bengaluru national highway in Krishnagiri district.
“Crow Bar tried to escape the darting operation again but its mistake of taking a wrong route has helped us to inject the animal,” A forest department staff told reporters here.
Post darting operation goes on near Hosur. (Photo: DC)
He added “then the tusker entered into the forest by protecting another elephant named ‘Mootu Kombu’ found with it. This shows that the darted animal has developed a close bonding and much concern that no harm could be done to its friend.”
Inside the forest, two more shots punctured the skin of the ‘crow bar’ that was given the first dart in the paddy field. The forest staffs had tough time in separating the animals because ‘Mootu Kombu’ was unwilling to leave the place without its friend.
The team waited till the tranquilizer doses take its effect. Then, ‘Mootu Kombu’ was goaded from the place so that two ‘Kumkis’, Bharani and Maraiappan, could take control of the sluggish animal.
A Manikandan (28), a mahout for the 'Kumki' elephant Mariappan, went beneath the darted tusker and tied the chains to its legs.
The darted animal was loaded into a truck meant for transporting elephants and brought out of the forest. According to the Forest department, the tusker will be kept in the observation of the veterinarians and then it will be released in the forest located at a distance of over 150-km from the place where the elephant was caught. This is the second the crow bar was caught after tranquilising the animal.
In February 2018, the tusker was tranqulised in a village close to Chinnar, on Chennai-Bengaluru national highway.
The elephant was caught after it killed three people in two days here in villages surrounding Chinnar. The tusker was released in the forest region at Hogenakkal, but it returned in a month to the place from where that was caught.
