50 wild elephants electrocuted in Sri Lanka this year
Around 50 wild elephants have so far been electrocuted by unauthorised electric fences or wires in Sri Lanka this year, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said on Monday.
The Uttarakhand forest department has said the wild elephant that was tranquilised in Haridwar is still in their possession and will released in the jungle only after it is fixed with a radio collar. The forest department had to conduct a long and tedious operation on Friday night to take the killer elephant to Mithawalla in Haridwar.
The radio collar for the wild tusker, which had killed two persons and injured two others recently, arrived from Chennai on Saturday morning. Rajaji Tiger Reserve’s director Sanatan Sonker said, “It was a long and challenging operation. The wild tusker was taken to Mithawalla with the support of two forest department jumbos.”
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The forest department will fix the radio collar for tracking its movement and to avoid the tusker’s entry into human habitat. The forest department was successful in moving the tranquilised tusker to Mithawalla, 2 km from Bilkeshwar colony near Jawalpur.
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The forest department will be conducting another special operation to fix the radio collar on Saturday evening. If everything works out according to plan the jumbo will be released in the wild late at night. The elephant created panic in the Bilkeshwar colony on Friday evening by damaging scooters and other vehicles.
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