JOIN USRanga's reign in the wild ends, to be tamed in Bannerghatta
Ranga, one of the most famous wild elephants, whose range stretched between Bannerghatta National Park and Savandurga, was captured by the forest department on Sunday afternoon.
“We caught Ranga at around 3 pm. He has been sent to Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) and will be tamed there,” said Deputy Conservator of Forests, Ramanagaram, D Manjunath. He added that with this, the operation to capture elephants wandering between Ramanagaram and Nelamangala on the city’s outskirts, has ended.
Another forest officer said that there were no plans to capture Ranga earlier, but they caught it owing to public pressure.
The 50-year-old tusker was captured in Magadi Forest range near Savandurga, with the help of camp elephants Abhimanyu, Gajendra, Harsha, Krishna and Bheema.
“Chief wildlife warden B J Hosmath on Friday had issued directions to capture another sub-adult Airavath, who had been captured in 2003-04 and relocated to Palar, near BRT Tiger Reserve. But since Airavath was elusive and with pressure from locals to capture Ranga mounting, the decision was changed on Sunday morning,” said a forest staffer.
“Ranga weighs five-and-a-half tonnes and stands around nine feet tall. He has no injuries but is very dangerous. His tusks are very sharp and during the rescue operation, they hurt Abhimanyu. His tusks will be blunted, so that he does not harm other captive elephants and the mahout. He will be kept in a kraal for three months,” said wildlife veterinarian Dr Umashankar, who was part of the rescue operation.
Ranga will be housed in a 10x10 feet kraal, built three months ago by the officials of Bannerghatta National Park (BNP). The kraal is adjacent to the BBP elephant enclosure which houses 21 camp elephants. According to BBP mahouts, Ranga used to frequent the area around five months ago, searching for a mate.
Earlier, BBP mahouts were asked to train Ranga, but all the 34 mahouts and kavadis refused, demanding that their services be made permanent first. This added pressure on the forest staff who brought in a mahout from one of the forest camps. Ranga’s capture has come as a shock to many conservationists. A social media campaign is on to relocate him into the wild.
Popular pachyderm
Though Ranga has not injured any humans, he was popularly called Rowdy Ranga because he used to tease foresters when they tried to chase him away. Locals also gave him the name because he used to frequently raid crops and kick fire crackers, which were used to drive away elephants.
He was a famous bull among the BBP camp’s cow elephants. He was popular because of his sharp, long tusks and has a huge fan following.
New arrival at BBP
BBP’s elephant Rupa (Veera) gave birth to a female on Friday night. Eight-year-old Rupa was renamed as Veera after MLA Ashok Kheny adopted her seven years ago.