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PALAKKAD: Three wild sub-adult male elephants — ‘bachelor bulls’ in expert-speak — who strayed from the forest almost a week ago, seem to have lost their way as clueless officials and thousands of panicking villagers use primitive methods to force them back.
“It is the habit of bachelor elephants to come out in small groups to explore new terrain. In this case they must have ventured too far from the forest,” Dr E A Jason, head of department (Wildlife), Kerala Forest Research Institute, told TOI.
The forest department has asked the police to promulgate prohibitory orders in these areas to prevent mobs from further enraging the animals. Foresters are also trying to bring ‘kumki’ elephants — domesticated tuskers trained to control wild elephants — but people like Dr Easa, a wildlife expert and former director of Kerala Forest Research Institute, believes it is too late for that.
Dr Easa pointed out such situations need to be managed more systematically and in this specific case there has been poor management of man-animal encounter. The operation to drive the elephants back to the forest is being headed by chief conservator of forest (eastern circle) L Chandrasekhar and Palakkad divisional forest officer (DFO) Samuel Pachulu.