The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Move to tackle ‘jumbo’ menace

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Tuesday, Feb 09, 2010
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Move to tackle ‘jumbo’ menace

Staff Reporter

The wild elephant has so far trampled 13 villagers to death

BHUBANESWAR: Worried over the increase in number of casualties due to attack by a wild elephant in Dhenkanal district, the State Forest Department has finally decided to take help of two Kunkis, trained elephants, to tame the killer pachyderm.

Residents of dozens of villages have been living in panic fearing appearance of the killer elephant, aged about 25 years, at any time. The elephant has so far trampled 13 villagers to death.

A team comprising 30 forest officials have being camping in Kamakshyanagar area of Dhenkanal, but they have not tasted any success.

According to forest officials, the killer elephant only comes out to open during night time.

“Owing to low visibility during night, we have not been able to tranquillize the elephant. Had it been daytime, we could have easily spotted the animal and done our job,” says an expert.

The movement of elephant was tracked in two elephant circles such as east and west Bhuban and Kamakshyanagar.

The Forest Department is planning to transport the Kunkis from Similipal National Park so that the personnel could come in close distance of the wild elephant.

Movement restricted

“About 18 elephants are now confined to small patch of forest. Their movement has been restricted due to development of Rengali Dam project.

Over the years, they have developed irritation.

Their anger got further multiplied due to erection of solar fences along their corridor,” says Prasanna Behera, honorary wildlife warden of Angul.

The artificial corridor created to facilitate their movement was never used by these pachyderms, says Mr. Behera. Now it seems to be a very tough ask to reach out to destination of killer elephant which always comes out only during night.

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