Crop-raiding elephant captured near Pollachi, for its third translocation in less than seven months

Tamil Nadu Forest Department captures a makhna that has been raiding agricultural crops in villages near Pollachi. This is the third translocation of the wild elephant in less than seven months.

The Forest Department captured 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, July 31, 2023. The elephant will be released into the Chinna Kallar forests within the ATR, around 15 km from Valparai.

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 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.

This is the third translocation of the elephant, who is highly habituated to feeding on agricultural crops, by the Forest Department in a period of less than seven months.

The makhna was first translocated from Dharmapuri district to ATR on February 5 this year, after it caused extensive damage to crops in the Palacode block. The elephant, however, strayed from the ATR forests and travelled over 100 km to reach Perur near Coimbatore city after two weeks.

It was captured once again, and translocated to another location in the ATR on February 23. But the elephant did not remain in the forest and began frequenting villages, including Saralapathi, around 20 km off Pollachi, from where it was captured on Monday.

Though a radio collar was fitted to the elephant during its second translocation, it failed to emit signals after a few days. Officials said that the defunct radio collar will be replaced with a new one before the makhna is released into the Chinna Kallar forests.

ATR Field Director S. Ramasubramanian, Deputy Director of Pollachi division of ATR Bhargava Teja, Assistant Conservator of Forests V. Selvam and Pollachi forest ranger V. Pugalendhi led the operation.