“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.
The two elephants arrived in the morning and the operation commenced at a sugarcane field around noon. Within four hours, the kumkis overpowered the frenzied wild bull and a veterinarian shot a tranquiliser at it, bringing the elephant to the ground in a few minutes.
The captured elephant, which was brought back to consciousness, was kept under surveillance by the forest officials. A senior forest officer said that the lone elephant would be released back into the forest of Tamil Nadu.
