Straying tusker in human habitats in Wayanad driven away to forest
The HinduForest department officials drove away a problematic tusker, known among residents as ‘Muttikomban’, to the forest from a human habitat at Panayamabam under the Kurichyad forest range in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary on April 10. Though a team of Forest officials drove away the elephant into the forest at Kallurkunnu with the assistance of three trained elephants of Muthanga elephant kraal on Tuesday evening, the animal appeared again in the morning. Apart from the three Kumki elephants, as many as 30 frontline Forest staff, including members of the rapid response team of the Forest department, took part in the operation. However, residents said the elephant had been driven away to the forest several times, but it had returned to human habitats and destroyed crops a few weeks later.