This story is from July 26, 2016

Rogue elephant that lured away 6 others in herd recaptured

Rogue elephant that lured away 6 others in herd recaptured
Chandrapur: In the first of its kind elephant rescue operation in the state, forest officials of Sironcha division worked with a sharp shooter and veterinary doctors to successfully tranquillize and recapture rogue elephant Ajit on Sunday. The majestic jumbo has been chained and brought back to Kamlapur base camp, where veterinary doctors are now keeping a close watch on him.
Ajit, a 22-year-old elephant, is the alpha male in the group of seven elephants stationed at Kamlapur forest camp.
The elephants here are used to haul heavy logs from the jungle to the depot, and load them on to the trucks. Over a week back, Ajit managed to remove its chain and flee deep into the forest of Kolamarka Conservation Reserve. The beast also took the entire herd of elephants with it into the forest. The rogue elephant charged at anyone who tried to retrieve him or the other elephants from the forest, said DCF, Sironcha forest division, Prabhunath Shukla, who led the operation.
Shukla said Ajit has quite a violent history. In 2011, Ajit had turned violent in peak summer and gone on a rampage, damaging vehicles on the road and crops in the nearby fields. In 2013, he had killed his mahout Penta Atram. Hence, recapturing the violent Ajit was a risky affair, the DCF explained.
After weeklong efforts, the rescue team of mahouts, veterinary doctors and support staff got the first success on Saturday, when they managed to recapture all other elephants, except Ajit. The rescue of the entire herd of elephants was quite difficult in the Kolamarka forests due to excessive rains, difficult terrain and dangers due to Naxal presence. However, the rescue team braved all the odds to first retrieve the other members of the herd out of the deep forest, Shukla said.
Wildlife veterinary Officer, TATR, Dr Ravikant Khobragade, who led the team of vets during the rescue operation, detailed the rescue operation to TOI.
Immediately after the other members of the elephant herd had been brought out and tethered in the fringe area of Kolamarka, Ajit came charging to look for its fellow elephants. The jumbo was so aggressive that the team decided to stay put on Saturday, said Dr Khobragade.

On Sunday morning, when the rescue team reached the place where the herd had been tethered, they found that Ajit had gone back into the jungle while the remaining elephants were still tethered there. The herd of elephants was then shifted close to Kamlapur camp at a strategic location near a culvert, where vets and the shooter sat ready with a tranquillizing gun, and waited for Ajit to come.
Ajit came looking for its mates near the culvert at 12 noon. Shooter Amol Kowase shot the majestic jumbo with a tranquillizing dart. The elephant was shot with a dose of standing sedative, and within half-an-hour it was sedated in standing condition, the vet explained. He stressed that this was the first of its kind operation in Maharashtra, where a rouge elephant was tranquillized and captured from the open forest.
After Ajit’s legs were chained and properly tethered to a tree, and its vital statistics like heart rate, body temperature etc were checked over three hours, it was given the revival medicine. Dr Khobragade said that Ajit is now quite fine and under control. The beast will be kept under the watch of vets for the next 48 hours, the doctor added.
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