Capturing Wild Elephants

Institute for Natural Resources Conservation, Education, Research and Training, (INCERT), Bangalore was founded in the year 2000 by Dr Yellappa Reddy, whose is now the chairman of Bangalore Environment Trust (BET). The leading researcher S. Sridhar is also a trustee of BET. A small note on the DR Yellappa Reddy and S. Sridhar are at the bottom of the post

INCERT has been studying the man-elephant confrontation in and around Bannerghatta national Park since the mid-nineties. INCERT’s Investigative report is reproduced here with the permission of the author. 

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INCERT Field Report dated Saturday the 29th June 2002, 

by S. Sridhar and S. Shreyas

Early this week the Forest Department requisitioned the services of seven tamed elephants from the various elephant camps of the state to the Bannergatta National Park, in order to capture four wild tuskers, which are creating a havoc in the national park and the adjacent villages.

According to the officials these four wild elephants which have been identified, are presently running amuck, and have killed some villagers in recent months and creating panic among the villagers in the neighborhood of Talaghattapura and Anekal.

Today, the National Park officials were seen running around with excitement and were putting their equipment together to capture the wild elephants. They were feverishly checking and rechecking their armaments and tapping their wireless sets to learn more about the movements of the rouge elephants in the Soppina Kunte and Chikkahosalli areas.

Tamed elephants deployed for the capture:

Tamed elephant Arjuna ( 45 years), from the Balle camp, Srirama (50 years) from the Titmatti camp, Abimanyu (39 years) from the Moorkal Camp, Harsha (35 years ) from the Dhubare camp, New Tusker (65 years) from the Sakkare Bayalu camp have all ready arrived at the national park and are being taken out to track down the troublesome wild elephants. Cow elephants Gayathri (40 years) and Lily( 45 years) have also arrived and they are expected to entice the wild elephants to a chosen spot and thereby ensuring easy tranquillization, capture and translocation of the wild elephants.

Dr. Chittiappa, an expert elephant capturer, was seen demonstrating the correct method of tying the knot around the neck of the captured elephant, as soon as it is tranquillized.

The operation to locate the fugitive wild elephants has already begun and the tranquillizing, capturing and translocation is expected to take place any time now.

Bannerghatta Elephants viz., Vanaraja, Vanitha, Veda and Swarna are not being deployed for this operation
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A small note on Dr Yellapa Reddy:

DR Yellapa Reddy retired as PCCF (Forests) and Secretary to Government of Karnataka. He served as the Secretary to the Department of Ecology and Environment from 1992 to 1995. The Karnataka High Court nominated him as a Conciliator in the High court Lok Adalat. He is also a visiting professor in the National Law School of India university, Bangalore.Has been involved in various environmental concerns for the past 50 years in Bangalore.

A small Note on S. Sridhar:

Was an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. A noted bird photographer and publisher of “Newsletter for Birdwatchers”