A problematic adult elephant, which roamed around in four districts covering more than 300 kilometers in the past ten days to unleash a reign of terror in thickly populated villages killing a man and injuring two others, has finally been captured after being sedated under tranquilization.
It was a sigh of relief for forest personnel for the last fortnight. The staff at the ground level virtually slept sleepless nights as they tried their level best to drive it back to its habitat in Bairi forest areas and minimize the elephant depredation. The elephant has been tranquilized at a crop field at Sobala village under Mahakalapada block of Kendrapara district after ten days of hectic operation, said Divisional Forest Officer, Cuttack Territorial Forest Division, Sanjay Kumar Swain.
The elephant was most probably rejected by its herd in Bairi forest areas. The rejection had led the wild animal to display violent behavioural instinct. It strode one area after the other and sneaked into the human habitations, triggering panic in Jajpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts. An elderly man was trampled down by the animal in NIschintakoili block while two others were injured in other places due to the attack by the elephant, he said.
The elephant was perfectly healthy at the time of rescue and it showed no signs of fatigue despite roaming around over 300 kilometres. The sneaking of elephants was never reported in Kendrapara and Jagatsinghour districts. Therefore there was an assembly of curious onlookers, which had disturbed the operation, he said.
Of the 30 districts in the State, the elephants had so far been sighted in as many as 28 revenue districts. For the first time, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts have witnessed the act of trespass of elephants. Two districts- Bhadrak and and Malkangiri- have so far been free from elephant depredation, said forest officials.