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Elephant traced, at last

BERHAMPUR: At last the whereabouts of the missing female elephant could be located in Lakhari sanctuary on Friday.

Speaking to The Hindu, Gajapati Divisional Forest Officer Manas Ranjan Bhatt has said they have collected definite proofs of its survival. This elephant has been located near the Gudiajhar stream near Angarabhasa tribal hamlet inside the Lakhari sanctuary. A tribal noticed the animal near the stream on Friday morning and informed the forester posted at Chadragiri. Immediately a team of forest officials rushed to the spot. Although by evening the team had not come face to face with the animal yet they collected proofs of movement of the animal in the area.

Mr. Bhatt said they are almost sure that the located animal is the missing female elephant as its foot marks have matched and it is moving in an isolated manner. Elephants live in herds and rarely move alone. But this elephant transported artificially from its herd now in Andhra is compelled to move alone as it would not be accepted by any other herd. The missing pachyderm has been located to be moving near the stream at distance of around five km from the spot where it was released on Sunday evening. According to the tribals of Angarabhasa, this lone elephant has been moving near their village since last three days.

It was one of the two female elephants which were transported in tranquilised condition from Andhra Pradesh to Lakhari under ‘Operation Gajendra’. One of them died on Sunday night due to overuse of tranquiliser and stress of long travel by trucks. The other elephant had gone missing since Monday leading to rumours that it may also have died due to same reasons.

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