Elephant Chinnathambi captured for second time, sent to camp

: Chinnathambi, the 25-year-old rogue elephant, which has been raiding agriculture fields of Udumalpet in nearby Tirupur district for the past two weeks, was Friday tranquilised and captured for the second time in the last 20 days.

The first time Chinnathambi was tranquilised, captured and translocated from Thadagam on the city outskirts to Varagaliyar forests was on January 25, following complaints of destruction of crops and attack on humans by the rogue tusker.

However, the elephant escaped from the Varagaliyar camp five days later and was roaming, and camping in banana and sugarcane fields in Kannadipudur village at Udumalpet.

Amid a legal battle between the government and wildlife activists over capturing and turning the elephant into a kumki (tame), the Madras High Court finally gave nod to capture, without harming it and tame Chinnathambi, the operation was started Thursday.

After the operations resumed Friday morning, two darts were administered to the elephant which started moving crisscross under the influence of the sedative, forest department sources said.

With the help of two kumkis and an earthmover, the pachyderm was loaded onto a lorry, after the operation which lasted nearly seven hours, they said.

The elephant would again be taken again to Varagaliyar camp and most likely kept there for taming purpose, they said.