Wild elephant damages forest dept vehicle

Coimbatore: Five forest field staff members suffered minor injuries after a makhna (tuskless male) elephant damaged a forest department’s jeep near Saralapathy in the Pollachi forest range of Anamalai Tiger Reserve on early Saturday morning. They were treated as outpatients at the Vettaikaranpudur primary health centre. The elephant came out of the reserve forest and entered a mango farm around 3.30am. Forest personnel followed the elephant in two jeeps to chase it back to the forest. They lost sight of the elephant in the dark. “Suddenly, it charged at the jeeps and toppled one of them. A side door and the windshield of the jeep were damaged. Forester Meiyappan and four forest guards — Saravanan, Raju, Vellingiri and Anandraj — who were in the jeep suffered minor injuries,” said a forest officer. Meanwhile, another team of frontline staff managed to chase the elephant into the forest around 4am.V Pugalenthi, Pollachi forest range officer, said the elephant has strayed out of the forest on several occasions in the past 10 days. “Around 50 personnel from Pollachi, Manombolly and Ulandy forest ranges are deployed at Saralapathy near Sethumadai to closely monitor the makhna and prevent it from straying into human habitations.”Three kumki elephants— Chinna Thambi, Rajavardhan and Muthu — were brought from the Kozhikamuthi elephant camp at the ATR and stationed at Saralapathi, he added.The forest department captured the elephant from Palacode block of Dharmapuri district on February 5 this year after it strayed into the human habitations and damaged crops. It was translocated to Varagaliyar forests in the ATR on February 6. It came out of the forest on February 21 and moved towards Coimbatore. The elephant travelled more than 100km before the forest department captured it near Perur on February 23. The makhna was then radio-collared and it was translocated to the reserve forest in the Ulandy range of ATR on February 24.