Rourkela: Fourteen days after a wild elephant was tranquilised and a radio collar was put around it, another wild elephant has been tranquilised under Bonai Forest Division. The elephant was terrorising residents for the last three months and was finally tranquilised in the small hours of Wednesday. This male elephant, left out of a herd, has been a troublemaker in the area. It has caused large-scale damage to properties, crops and injuries to human beings during the last three months, said sources. The villagers of many remote areas and also the residents of Bonai had made fervent appeals to the DFO of Bonai, Lalit Patra, to tranquilise it and put a radio collar around it so that the department could track it.
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Patra and his squad including, ACF of Bonai Jagannath Prasad Bisoi, all rangers of the division, foresters, guards, elephant squad, staff from Similipal Forest, a special doctor and the tranquilising team started keeping track of the elephant and it was tracked inside the jungle near Bonai town around 12:30 am. Soon, the tranquiliser was shot into it. “Without wasting time, we immediately put the radio collar around it. The previous one is also helping us,” said Patra. It was later allowed to go deep into the jungle when it regained its senses. On September 18, another elephant was tranquilised and a radio collar was put around it.
RAJESH MOHANTY, OP