Missing elephant found after two months; mahout arrested

New Delhi: A 47-year-old elephant that had gone missing two months ago and a countrywide alert was issued to trace it has been found, a Delhi forest department official said on Wednesday. The elephant, Laxmi, was traced to Yamuna Khadar area. Its mahout, Saddam, has been arrested, the Delhi Police said. “We had launched a search operation on Tuesday to locate the elephant.
Three teams comprising around 12 officials combed the areas along the banks of the Yamuna river and the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border,” the forest department official said. “We requested the police to increase patrolling in the Yamuna Pusta area as we suspected the elephant was being kept somewhere there. The Shakarpur police detained the mahout and the elephant early in the morning and informed us,” he said. The elephant is safe. (PTI)