Forest officials, on Thursday night, captured the second tusker in Nelamangala forest range, after capturing one on Wednesday afternoon.
The ground staff was busy till late in the night, looking for and capturing the elephants. The second elephant was captured at the same location where the first one was caught on Wednesday. With the capture of this sub-adult bull elephant, the rescue operation has come to an end.
The pachyderm, after undergoing medical examination, was put into a truck and sent to Bandipur Tiger Reserve on Thursday night.
B J Hosmath, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), told DH that the second tusker was tracked and darted at around 8 pm. “We had identified three sub-adults of the herd, all male, for capturing. One was electrocuted last Saturday and one was captured on Wednesday. With the capture of the last one on Thursday, the rescue operation has come to an end,” he said.
Another forest official said that it was a herd of nine elephants. Of them, Sidda suffered a prolonged injury and died, while three elephants died of electrocution. The other tuskers have separated from each other.
“Directions were issued to capture only three sub-adults. We have not captured Ranga, who is 40 years old and is moving between Savandurga and Bannerghatta National Park,” the official said.
The forest staff did not waste time by keeping the tusker at the camp in the Nelamangala forest range as doing so would have attracted crowds. Like on Wednesday, camp elephants accompanied the captured tusker to Bandipur on Thursday.
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