In a combined effort, the Tirupattur forest division and the district police have been trying to send back the two tuskers from the villages along the Chennai - Bengaluru Highway (NH 44) in Tirupattur into Reserve Forests (RFs) along the Tamil Nadu - Andhra Pradesh border to prevent human casualties.
Forest officials said that the two tuskers got lost from the herd along the migration route from their base area, Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary in Chittoor (A.P) more than a week ago.
The elephants, which are around eight years old, were roaming in villages along forest areas in Krishnagiri and Tirupattur districts. Forest officials said that two people were killed by these elephants in Krishnagiri district a few days ago. However, there have been no human casualties in Tirupattur district so far.
For the past few days, the elephants have been camping in villages along the National Highway in Natrampalli taluk of Tirupattur district.“We are coordinating with forest officials to send back the tuskers into forests without human casualties. A special forest rescue team from Dharmapuri is also roped up for the purpose,” K.S. Balla Krisshnan, SP (Tirupattur), told The Hindu.
Accompanied by the District Forest Officer (DFO) Naga Sathish Gidijala, Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian, and SP Mr. Krisshnan, they inspected the villages along the national highway where the elephants were camping on Sunday.
Forest teams from Vaniyambadi, Ambur, and Natrampalli ranges have been deployed in ten villages, including Jangalapuram, Ellapalli, Athurkuppam, Kulima Kollai, and Thottikinaru, along the highway to prevent residents from venturing out of their houses, as forest officials said that the movement of elephants will be mostly at night.
Five police checkpoints, especially on the National Highway have been set up to prevent crowds from gathering to watch the elephants. A 46-member police team, led by the Deputy SP, has also been camping in these villages. A helpline number, 9442992526, has also been created by the police for residents in case of emergencies.
