Wild jumbos kill one more person taking the death toll to ten
Vijayanagaram, October 23, 2007The operation Gajendra, the exercise to drive back the herd to their habitat in Orissa got under way on Tuesday. It trampled to death one T Bhanumurthy of Ankavaram village of Jiyyammavalasa Mandal in the district of Vizianagaram. With this, the death toll rose to 17 ten in Andhra Pradesh and seven in Orissa.
The elephants are moving around the mandals of Veeraghattam, Palakonda, Sitampeta in Srikakulam district and Gummalakshmipuram, Jiyyammavalasa and Kurupam mandals in Vizianagaram district. Operation Gajendra involves 30 personnel from the Department of Forests of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
The exercise to drive away the wild pachyderms by bursting crackers and beating drums. The Conservator of Forests PV Padmanabham said that they are keeping open options of using tranquillized elephants could then be lifted by cranes and left in dense forests. He said that the chances of the herd returning could not be ruled out and clarified that permanent measures like sending them to zoos would require governmental permission.
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