The district administration on Friday issued prohibitory orders on 10 divisions of Sultan Bathery town in Wayanad (north Kerala) after a wild elephant sneaked into the busy municipal area, a senior district official said, requesting anonymity.
A pedestrian had a narrow escape from the tusker which was later forced to flee to fringe areas of forests by officials. The sub divisional magistrate has asked people to “maintain strict vigil and avoid night journeys” on two- wheelers and small vehicles. Joint teams of police and forest department are keeping a strict vigil, an official said.
Later, the forest department officials identified the elephant as the one that killed two people in Gudalur area of Nilagiri district in Tamil Nadu last year. They said that the animal was darted and released in deep forests at that time but it came back to human settlements after some time.
The animal entered the town around 2.30 am on Friday and remained there for several hours, said an official. It charged towards a native, identified as P Thambi, and knocked him down with its trunk. But it could not trample him as the railing on the foot path blocked his sudden entry, officials in the know of the matter said.
Later, the elephant chased a bus of the state road transport corporation. Forest officials said the elephant was spotted near Mallankunnu, three km away from the town and is likely to intrude into human settlements again.
Meanwhile, forest minister A K Saseendran on Friday visited Dhoni area in Palakkad to check the arrangements to capture another rogue elephant PT-7. “Kraal (elephant training cell) is getting ready. We will be able to capture the tusker in a couple of days,” said Saseendran.
Around 70 forest officials, a team of veterinary doctors and two kumki (trained jumbos) elephants are on trail of the rogue jumbo that killed one person in last July, destroyed agriculture farms and has terrorised local people for more than a year.
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