Gundlupet: A wild elephant, which was creating havoc by destroying crops in villages bordering Himavad Gopalaswamy Hill was captured by the Forest Department with the help of tamed elephants.

The wild elephant, aged about 40 years, was captured at Sandal Reserve Forest at Somanathapura in Gopalaswamy Hill Range and has been released in Gundre Forest coming under the Eco-Sensitive Zone of Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

The operation to capture the wild elephant was taken up 20 days ago but the wild elephant on seeing the Forest staff along with tamed elephants from Dubare Elephant Camp used to run away following which the Forest staff had temporarily halted the operation.

But the operation to capture the wild elephant was halted, the elephant came again and began to destroy the crops.

Yesterday early morning, the Forest staff, along with tamed elephants Kanjan, Rama, Lakshmana, Eshwara and Rohit, conducted an operation and successfully captured the wild elephant.

The Forest Officials and staff, who began observing the movements and behaviour of the wild elephant from Tuesday evening, found the wild elephant moving near the safari ticket counter and immediately took steps to capture it.

Chief Veterinarian Dr. Mujeeb and Veterinarian Dr. Mirza Waseem, who were on the back of tamed elephants, tranquillised the wild elephant rendering it unconscious following which the wild elephant was secured with ropes and captured.

Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Prabhakaran, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Naveen, Range Forest Officers (RFOs) Manjunath, Jnanashekar, Gajendra, Vijay, Karthik, Gopalakrishna and Anand, over 100 Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) and Leopard Task Force (LTF) personnel took part in the operation.