Jumbos run amok as auto honks, dog barks

Damage compound wall of fire station, college entrance; belong to Suttur Mutt, Mysore

Two domestic elephant calves belonging to the Suttur Mutt ran amok near a fire station at Saraswathipuram here around 7 am on Wednesday, giving the forest department a scare. 

Although no one was seriously injured in the incident, the elephants damaged the compound wall of a fire station and the entrance of TTL College. Animal caretakers accompanying the young elephants, with the help of fire personnel, managed to rein in the pachyderms. 

Three-year-old female calf Champa and three-and-a-half-year-old Drona had been brought into Mysore for the first time for grazing. They were being brought from the Mutt, located at the foot of Chamundi Hills, to the Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), where there is abundant grass. 

The mahouts and kavadis, along with the two calves, left Suttur Mutt around 6 am. They passed by Nanjangud-Mysore road and JLB Road before reaching the railway overbridge around 6.45 am on the way to SJCE. Just then, an auto-rickshaw driver sounded horn, panicking the nervous calves. At the same time, a dog started barking. 

“The calves are very scared of dogs. We were trying to control the nervous elephants when an auto driver honked loudly. Then the dog started barking and the elephants panicked, running helter-skelter,” Pasha, a mahout, said. 

While Champa ran into the fire station, Drona ran towards TTL College, prompting the mahouts and kavadis to go after them. Fire personnel, who were rehearsing for Kannada Rajyotsava parade at Saraswathipuram, also joined the animal caretakers. Finally, the elephants were secured around 7.30 am and chained near the fire station before being sent back to Suttur Mutt. 

False alert 

Meanwhile, the forest department received an alert from the district control room that “wild elephants” were on the rampage. “We received a message around 7.10 am that wild elephants were on the rampage at Saraswathipuram.

Ten forest officers were sent to the spot immediately and a team was formed to drive the wild elephants back into the forests. But we found later that the animals were domesticated,” V Karikalan, deputy conservator of forests, said. “We have asked them to intimate us or the police if they decided to take the elephants out so that appropriate precaution can be taken.” 

This is the third incident involving elephants of Suttur Mutt in as many years. In August 2011, two elephants, Maasti and Lakshmi, ran amok during a routine walk, during which the kavadi of an elephant was injured. In January 2014, Drona and Champa, had run amok during the Suttur fair procession, injuring five people. 

Sources in the forest department said it had the authority to take the animals back from private persons in case of such incidents. “Certificates issued to them can be withdrawn as the incident was potentially life-threatening. If the calf dies in a road accident while being brought to the city, Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, will have to be invoked as elephant is a schedule one animal,” the source said. 

But Nanjundaswamy, a representative of the Mutt, claimed the incident was “minor” and that the elephants panicked because of noise. “A similar incident had happened in Suttur in January,” he said but admitted that the Mutt had not informed the forest department that the elephants were being brought into Mysore.