The Forest Department captured and translocated a crop-raiding makhna (tuskless male elephant) that had been translocated from Dharmapuri to the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) in February this year, from a village near Pollachi in Coimbatore district on Monday. The elephant was released into the Chinna Kallar forests within the ATR, around 15 km from Valparai in the afternoon.
Four veterinarians, A. Sukumar, E. Vijayaraghavan, S. Sathasivam, and Rajesh Kumar, have been camping in the locality for about a week to get the elephant on to a suitable terrain in order to tranquillize and capture it.
A kumki (trained male elephant) Kapildev, assisted the veterinarians and the staff in restricting the movements of the makhna. The captured elephant was tied with ropes and pushed, while sedated, onto a modified truck for translocation.
