Relief returned to Tirupattur town on Saturday as the two captured tuskers were safely released at Sanamavu Reserve Forest (RF) in Hosur on the fringes of the Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuary along the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.
Tirupattur District Forest Officer (DFO) Naga Sathish Gidijala, who led the operation including the release of the tuskers into the wild, told The Hindu that a week-long uncertainty of the safety of residents, crops and elephants had come to an end. “Based on field reports, the tuskers are active and healthy. They are moving deep into the forests along the elephant corridor,” he said.
Tirupattur forest ranger M. Prabhu was part of the exercise. More than 100 forest officials from five forest divisions — Dharmapuri, Hosur, Tirupattur, Tiruvannamalai, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) — were involved, Mr. Gidijala said.
He added that they had two options: either push the tuskers back to the forests along the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border or tranquillise them before they were released in the wild. However, there were no plans to relocate the captured tuskers to elephant camps as they were not rogue elephants or crop raiders.
Initially, forest officials and the police tried to send the elephants back to the forests along the border. Due to a crowd of onlookers, mainly locals, the tuskers got frightened and moved towards human habitations in Natrampalli and Kandali taluks. They roamed in mango groves and lakes near Tirupattur town, where they were tranquillised at Thippa Samudram village around 5 p.m. on May 18 with the help of three tuskers from MRT and ATR.
“We also dropped the idea of releasing them [tuskers] in Jawadhu Hills, which had a herd of seven elephants a decade ago, as it is a tourist spot and has human settlements,” the DFO said.
After consultation with Chief Wildlife Warden R. Srinivas Reddy; Conservator of Forests, Vellore Division, D. Sujatha; Tirupattur Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian; and Superintendent of Police K.S. Balakrishnan, Sanamavu RF in the Hosur Forest Division was selected for the release of tuskers. They were released around noon.
