Chikkamagalur: The people of Chikkamagalur district in Karnataka heaved a sigh of relief following the capture of a tusker that created havoc in the region along with other elephants.
The lone tusker named as ‘Bhyra’ had killed two persons in the last two months following which the people had chased down BJP MLA and attacked him. BJP MLA M.P. Kumaraswamy had come to pay condolences to the woman, who was killed by tusker.
After the attack on the BJP MLA, the forest department and state government had woken up and ordered the capture of the rogue elephants. The prolonged operation was launched by the authorities for over eight days to capture the elephant and its group.
Six tamed elephants were used for the operation. Two elephants were captured. But, the lone tusker, who led the attacks, managed to give a slip to the combing operations. It even ducked drone cameras.
However, the operation team managed to gather information on ‘Bhyra’ in the forest near Oorabage village in Mudigere talkuq on Sunday night and captured it with the help of the tamed elephants.
Though the region faces elephant attacks often, no elephant created such a menace. No loss of life was reported before the lone tusker Bhyra’s group of elephants created menace.
The people had barged inside the forest department building and destroyed one of the units when the first death case was reported. They attacked the sitting MLA, after the second death.
The authorities had to visit every village in the region and make announcements through mikes. This was the second attempt by the authorities to catch the lone tusker.
Two months ago about six tamed elephants were brought to catch ‘Bhyra’. The lone tusker had gone deep inside the jungle. After carrying out operations for three days the operation was halted following the tamed elephants developing fever and stomach ache.
