Kerala Forest darting team goes after rampaging elephant, PT-7, in Palakkad’s Dhoni forest

Forest officials said efforts were on to coax PT-7 to a place where it can be tranquilized and guided into a lorry with the help of kumki elephants

A large forest team led by Chief Forest Veterinary Officer Arun Zachariah on Saturday morning launched an operation to capture Palakkad Tusker-7 (PT-7), a rogue elephant that has been terrorising Dhoni and neighbouring villages for the past two years.

Although the tracking team could locate PT-7, the elephant kept moving into the forest, making it hard for Dr. Zachariah and his team to dart it with tranquilizer.

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Forest officials said efforts were on to coax PT-7 to a place where it can be tranquilized and guided into a lorry with the help of kumki elephants. Three kumkis named Surendran, Bharathan and Vikram have joined the mission.

The topography of Dhoni forest, according to officials, is making the mission hard. The steepness of the terrain is not ideal for an elephant capturing mission, they said.

A posse of police personnel was also deployed at Dhoni considering the size and significance of the operation. The people of Dhoni and neighbouring villages have been living in terror for months on end as PT-7 continually raided their farmlands and residential areas. The elephant destroyed a portion of paddy at Dhoni even on Friday night.

Figures available with the Forest Department show that PT-7 remained out of the forest for more than 180 days of the last one year. “PT-7 was responsible for more than 90 per cent of the elephant conflicts in the region,” said Dr. Zachariah.