MTR’s two kumkis reach Erode to capture rogue jumbo ‘Karuppan’

COIMBATORE: Two kumkis have been brought from Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) to resume operations to capture the crop-raiding wild elephant nicknamed ‘Karuppan’ in Erode.

The kumkis, Bomman and Sujai arrived at Thalavadi on Monday in the early hours of Monday to capture the evasive wild elephant.

‘Karuppan’ has evaded capture twice even after darting with tranquilizer shots during subsequent efforts in January.

Following two unsuccessful attempts, the forest department temporarily suspended the operation to capture the elephant.

It was once again decided to resume capturing operations as efforts by the forest department to prevent the animal from frequenting farms in villages in Thalavadi range to raid crops turned futile.

The elephant has also trampled two farmers to death previously.

A large team from the forest department accompanied by veterinarians were involved in the operation. Even as efforts were on to capture the elephant, more than 300 farmers gathered in protest at Jeerahalli forest range office on Monday.

They cooked food for lunch at the site and continued their protest for around nine hours until senior officials of the forest department held several rounds of talks and persuaded them to leave while assuring them to capture ‘Karuppan’ in a couple of days.

In a further wildlife-related development, a female elephant that was starving due to deep injuries in its tongue and taken to Varagaliyar in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) from Coimbatore died on Sunday night.

A post-mortem on Monday has revealed that the elephant suffered an injury after it bit ‘avuttukai’ (country bomb).