Mananthavady: Five days on in pursuit of the evasive Belur Makhana, another elephant that has been accompanying the tusker, reportedly charged towards the forest guards. The forest guards had to flee for fear of their lives. The accompanying elephant was subsequently chased away after firing shots into the sky. 

By midnight on Wednesday, Belur Makhana had crossed Bavali river and entered the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve. After receiving the signal from the radio collar that it had returned in the morning, the Rapid Response Team followed it again. The tuskless male elephant has been accompanying Belur Makhana for two days now. This has made the capture even more difficult as the team now needs to separate the two before attempting to dart Belur Makhana.

Officials of the forest department say that they got the wild elephant within darting range twice but both attempts were unsuccessful. The elephant is currently prowling along the Kerala-Karnataka border. The capture mission with four Kumki elephants continued till 5 PM yesterday. But even on the fourth day they had to retreat in despair. The mission will continue on Thursday as well.

The elephant can only be darted if it crosses on to the Kerala border to avoid legal issues. Though help was sought from Karnataka, the state offered Kumki elephants to drive Makhana away. At present, the forest department is conducting operations at four locations. Since the movement of the elephant could not be fully determined with drone surveillance, a thermal camera was sent from Ernakulam. 

A 200-member forest guard team was assigned for Wednesday’s mission. Apart from this, 32 beat forest officers who returned after completing training on Tuesday are also being utilized.