Mayabunder, Aug. 05: On 27/07/14 information was received that an elephant of Forest Department has gone to “musth” condition and obstructing the vehicular traffic at Austin – II area and damaged the glasses of one SS Transport Bus. On the next day a tranquilizing team of Forest Department reached at Mayabunder in the evening.
On 29/07/14 at around 10.00 AM a team consisting of 23 people with Police /Forest Department officials departed for jungle to tranquilize the elephant but in vain. During the operation one Forester namely Kalidas had been killed by the elephant. In earlier occasion the aforesaid delinquent elephant has already killed two people in the past.
On 30/07/14, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (WL) and Chief Wildlife Warden, A&N Islands passed an order to kill the elephant in order to save further loss of life and damage to property. For the convenience of the general public, traffic on 8 km stretch between Austin Bridge to Mohanpur was regulated in convoy fashion by providing sufficient security guards.
A special team of IRBn personnel were also reported at Mayabunder for the support of local police for conducting joint operations. On 04/08/14 information was received that the delinquent elephant is roaming in the area of Mohanpur No. 8. Soon after receipt of the information the team headed by SI Madhab Haider, SHO PS Mayabunder along with five police personnel of PS Mayabunder with the support of IRBn personnel headed by Insp. Naveen Kumar along with seven IRBn personnel went to the jungle for conducting joint operation.
A special tranquilizing team from Kerala also accompanied the Police team. At about 4 km away from the main road the team found the presence of the elephant in the nearby area.
Suddenly the team saw that the elephant moving towards at a distance of about 40 meters and the tranquilizing team made all possible efforts to tranquilize the elephant but in vain.
Joint team could spot the elephant only when it came at approx. 10 meters distance. At such a close distance it was possible to survive only by shooting the elephant, tranquilizing/running to save lives was no more an option.
On this joint team of local Police & IRBn came to the task and responded very swiftly to neutralize the elephant. This swift action not only saved lives of the people in the team, but also threat roaming large on people in the area.
Apart from this, IRBn staff deployed at Diglipur and local Police of PS Kalighat, PS Mayabunder and OP Kishori Nagar played important role in moving the people to safer areas and regulating the traffic on the route under attack by elephant.
