Killer tusker captured in Haridwar

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 19

After a marathon operation, a killer tusker was finally captured by the forest officials in the Haridwar region of Uttarakhand. The tusker was responsible for death of two persons recently and was in a habit of frequently raiding human habitations in Haridwar and its surroundings.

A joint team of Rajaji Tiger Reserve along with the Haridwar Forest Division authorities has been in search of the tusker for quite sometime. On Thursday evening, the team came to know of the location of the elephant following which the combing operation started at 8.30 pm itself.

The tusker was finally tracked in Ranipur forests in the hill bypass area as early as 4.30 am today. This took Herculean efforts to tranquilise and capture the tusker. The team of forest officials, led by Rajaji Tiger Reserve’s Veterinary Officer Dr Aditi Sharma tranquilised the tusker. The team that was on another female elephant fired at the killer tusker with a tranquiliser gun from a close range. As the tusker lost consciousness, it was now an enormous task at hand transporting the big sized jumbo.

The tusker was tied to chains and lifted with the help of cranes before it was transported to Bilkeshwar situated Haridwar Forest Division Office at around 11 am. The entire medical check of the tusker was done following, which it was sent to the Chila Range of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve that has facilities for keeping elephants.

The tusker in question had got into a habit of attacking humans on the BHEL and Tibri road areas of Haridwar. This tusker had killed two persons in the area. Only yesterday, the tusker had killed a labourer in the BHEL township of Haridwar.

Rajaji Tiger Reserve’s Director Sanatan supervised the proceedings. “The elephant is 15 years of age and will be released soon in the Mithawali range where it will be under strict observation of forest officials”, disclosed Sanatan. The Rajaji tiger reserve’s camp elephants Radha and Rangeeli were also part of the operation.