MYSORE: The forest department’s operation to capture a wild tusker in H D Kote, which had strayed into H D Kote and neighbouring areas, was affected for the third day on Thursday following incessant rain.The tusker was sighted near Drivers Colony in H D Kote town on Tuesday evening and ran amok in a farm owned by one Bhavani. It later proceeded to a tank in Belaganahalli village.Hundreds of residents of Belaganahalli and neighboring villages gathered outside, neglecting the warnings of forest officials, to protect their crops, such as ginger, cotton, paddy, sugarcane and banana.Forest officials who managed to capture the wild tusker with the help of tame elephants Arjuna and Mary could not tranquilize it fearing that it may get drowned in the tank. Helpless forest officials burst fire crackers to chase it back to the forest. The villagers, on their part, were unable to celebrate Diwali, owing to fear of the looming tusker.Chief Conservator of Forest Ajay Mishra told Express that they have decided to employ two other tuskers from elephant camps - Abhimanyu and Sriram - to drive away the wild tusker from the tank. He maintained that the elephant cannot be tranquilised as the tank is full of water and it would be difficult to fish the elephant out of the tank should it get drowned in it. The capture operation is expected to resume on Friday if the tusker does not make a return to the forest.
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