Wild elephant, captured by foresters from Hassan dist

MYSURU: The famous tusker, Thaneer, from Hassan district which was translocated two weeks ago to Bandipur Tiger Reserve died at Rampura elephant camp in the wee hours of Saturday. Environmentalists blame the foresters for the death.

The elephant was captured in Belur in Hassan district on January 16 after villagers had complained that the jumbo had regularly raided their crop. It was radio-collared and translocated to Bandipur Tiger Reserve and released into the wild in Moolehole forest range.

The tusker died after it was taken to Bandipur. As per the preliminary findings of the postmortem, the tusker died of a heart attack caused by stress.

However, the tusker had entered Mananthavady in Kerala. As the villagers expressed fear about the tusker, the forest department of Kerala on directions from the Kerala chief wildlife warden, launched an operation to capture the elephant on Friday afternoon.

They captured the tusker by hitting tranquillising dart. The first dart was hit at around 5.30 pm and the second dart at around 6.20 pm.

With the assistance of the camp elephants, the tusker was pushed into the truck at around 10.30 pm and then relocated to the Rampura camp in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve at around 10.30 pm in a wildlife ambulance.