Palakkad, Jan 22: A wild elephant, which has been wreaking havoc in a few villages in Kerala’s Palakkad district for over two years, was captured on Sunday morning after a Forest department team tranquilised it.
The elephant, which was code-named as Palakkad Tusker-7 (PT-7), was roaming inside the forest at Dhoni and neighbouring villages in the district was found by the Rapid Response Team after a search that went on for several hours.
A team led by chief veterinary surgeon, Dr Arun Zachariah, tranquilised the wild elephant around 7 AM.
Excited over the achievement of the forest department’s team, State Forest minister, A K Saseendran, renamed PT-7 as ‘Dhoni’, the village where the elephant had hit hard.
“We started our operation at 4.30 AM and spotted the elephant at around 6 AM. We were able to tranquilize it at around 7 AM,” Zachariah told the media.
He said the whole operation was the result of great team work.
“An individual will not be able to do this all alone. Our team worked like well-oiled machinery. We are trying to understand the nature of this animal. We are planning to train it to become a kumki elephant,” Zachariah told the media.
A Kumki elephant is used to trap and train their wild counterparts.
Saseendran, who had earlier in the day hailed the officials involved in the operation, reached Dhoni village to congratulate the team. (PTI)
