Darting mission in Kerala hit as wild tusker remained untraced

The direction by the High Court came after the Forest Department said it had an alternative location in mind

The efforts of the Kerala forest department on Friday to dart a wild elephant at Idukki district for translocation was hit as the tusker could not be spotted during the day.

The wild elephant, named 'Arikomaban', has been causing destruction in human settlements in Chinnakanal region near Munnar tourist spot of Idukki and hence the forest department decided to translocate it.

Since the recent plans to translocate it to Parambikulam forest region of Palakkad district met with strong resistance from the people of that region, the forest department is yet to disclose the location to which the tusker would be translocated.

A mock drill on darting the tusker was done on Thursday afternoon and a forest team led by chief veterinary surgeon Dr Arun Zachariah began the mission by early hours of Friday.

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Even as the tusker was spotted in the locality quite often, on Friday morning it could not be spotted. Instead another herd of wild elephants was spotted.

By noon the day's mission was stopped.

A forest team later spotted the tusker by afternoon. The mission would resume on Friday.

The forest department plans to fix radio-collar on the elephant before translocating it.

Even as the forest department earlier planned to capture and tame the wild tusker, wildlife activists moved court against it.

Subsequently the court directed to translocate the tusker to another region.