Steps to tranquillise tusker wild elephant ‘Bullet’ under way in the Nilgiris

COIMBATORE: The forest department has initiated efforts to tranquilise and capture the wild tusker ‘Bullet’ as it continues to target houses in Pandalur in The Nilgiris.

“Efforts will be taken to tranquilise and capture the elephant. An order is awaited in this regard from Chief Wildlife Warden Rakesh Kumar Dogra, who is on a joint inspection with Kerala forest department officials on the interstate border. The capturing works will start soon,” said N Venkatesh Prabhu, the Divisional Forest Officer (Gudalur) to villagers who resorted to protest on Thursday.

In the morning, the Kolappalli Government Tea Estate workers boycotted work and staged a sit-in protest after Bullet damaged two houses in the Range-II area on Wednesday night.

After a few days of break, Bullet resumed its antics by intruding into human settlements to damage the houses of two residents in the middle of the night. The forest department’s several measures to scare away Bullet into the forest area have failed so far and the elephant’s intrusion continues.

Besides deploying two kumkis, the forest department personnel also created smoke of dried elephant dung, sprayed dung of ‘musth’ elephant around houses, and hung clothes painted with a paste of natural repellents like chilli powder and neem oil.

Meanwhile, multiple teams of the forest department continue to monitor ‘Bullet’ day and night as it has camped on the foothills of ‘Samiyar Malai’ near Malavan Cherambadi village.