This bull elephant was notorious for breaking into homes and ration shops to steal rice. However, the animal was finally captured and on Sunday released into the deep interiors of Periyar Tiger Reserve.
The tusker, transported by truck, to the tiger reserve on Saturday evening after a 12-hour long operation to tranquilise and capture it.
Giving details of the operation, which involved a large number of forest personnel and four kumki (trained) elephants, a forest official said progress evaded them till the second day of operations, when another tusker, who was a competitor of Arikomban, brought the rice-favouring elephant before the forest officials enabling them to tranquilise it.
The officials also said that the journey to the tiger reserve from Chinnakanal and Santhanpara areas of this hill district, where Arikomban had caused damage to human settlements, took some time due to the forest roads becoming slushy following rains.
“We are getting signals from the radio collar. His location will be monitored from the tiger reserve. He is very healthy,” an official said.
