Dhenkanal: The employees of Kapilas zoo in Dhenkanal district are a panicked lot ever since reports emerged that the forest department is contemplating on sending yet another killer tusker to the elephant rescue centre here from Danagadi area in Jajpur district.
Without adequate infrastructure, the zoo employees are already facing an elephantine task of taming a killer tusker brought in from Talcher area in Angul district.
According to sources in the zoo, the killer tusker that had been causing havoc in Talcher area was brought to Kapilas zoo January 22. On its arrival, the zoo authorities had shifted their own four elephants to a different location. The killer tusker was kept with its four legs chained to four pillars of an open platform. However, it managed to break three of the four chains.
In an attempt to avoid any mishap, the zoo authorities had to close the zoo for a day. Subsequently, a trench was dug up around the platform and the wild jumbo was again tied up.
As of now, the tusker seems to have become more violent. It has not only broken the water tank near it, but also it doesn’t allow patrolling staff or other zoo staff tasked with feeding the jumbo to come near it. At times, it picks up earth and mud-balls lying around on its trunk and throws them at the staff.
As if managing this Talcher tusker was not enough, the forest department is said to be mulling bringing in another from Jajpur district which has gained notoriety for so far killing two persons apart from causing massive damage to crops and properties there.
When contacted, district divisional forest officer Bimal Prasanna Acharya said they were yet to receive any letters from the forest department in this context. “If such a direction is received, it would be turned down on the ground of the zoo having no infrastructure to keep two unruly killer tuskers at a time,” Acharya said.
PNN
