Radio collars to monitor rogue elephants

SULTHAN BATHERY: For the first time in the history of the state, the Forest Department is trying to monitor the movement of rogue elephants by fitting radio collar on them.As a first step, one elephant has been fitted with radio collar on Thursday in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.The move comes barely a week after two elephants went on a rampage in Mysore.Talking to Express, V K Sreevalsan, Wayanad Wildlife Warden, said that a 50-member team of experts comprising Forest Department personnel, veterinarians and radio collar experts from World Wildlife Fund, succeeded in fixing radio collar on a 35-year-old tusker.“The animal was a regular farm-raider and posed threat to human life,” he added.On the merits of radio collaring, he said the move would help in gathering information on the movement pattern of elephants, which would help in developing long-term conservational strategies. “Radio collaring would also help in reducing human-animal conflict,” he added.“Daily monitoring of the animal, migratory habits, seasonal movements and giving warning for villagers on the possible entry of the animal into their farm or village are the objectives of the process,” he said.The elephant was located by 6.30 am at Arakunchi forest near Muthanga and the darting team with tranquillising guns followed. Alarmed by human movement, the animal crossed the Kalloor river by 10 am and moved in to Thekkumpatta forest. The animal came down with the second doze of sedation and the radio collar was fitted around its neck.“We have been receiving two types of signals, Global Positioning System (GPS) which helps locate the animal and VHF signals from the iridium radio collars which helps us receive pictures of the locality,” said Dr Arun Zacharia, Assistant Forest Veterinary Officer.“It would help learning the movement pattern of the animals, home zone, and an early warning system also could be developed to help villagers to take precautions,” he added.The team’s next target is a wayward tusker of the Pathiri section of Chethalayam Range of South Wayanad Forest Division which they would attempt on Thursday.