“Operation Gaja” was a success with the forest officials capturing the wild lone elephant on Thursday evening, within a few hours after deploying the two kumkis (trained elephants) from Kuppam.
The lone elephant, a male in its 20s, reportedly trampled to death three villagers on Wednesday, including two at Ramapuram village near Chittoor, and another at a bordering village in Tamil Nadu. The loner also killed two cattle, and critically injured two other villagers.
With directions from the higher authorities after consulting with the Central forest and environmental agencies, the Chittoor division forest officials drew up an action plan, thus deploying the two trained elephants, Vinayak and Jayanth, from Naniyala forest camp near Kuppam.
