As many as five persons were injured after a tranquillised wild elephant suddenly woke up and attacked forest officials fitting a radio collar on its body in Khordha district on Monday.
The incident took place near Gayabandha village under Jankia police limits of the district.
As per reports, a team of selected forest personnel including two scientists of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru were appointed for the operation of fitting a radio collar on the elephant.
However, it is suspected that the elephant was not tranquillised correctly which is possibly why the pachyderm revived its senses and attacked the team of experts while they were attending the animal to fit the tracking device.
"When the forest staff went closer to the elephant named 'Ramu' which to fit the equipment on its body, it suddenly woke up and charged at them them leaving the officials injured," said PCCF (principal chief conservator of forest) (Wildlife) Sashi Paul.
Officials said, of the five injured forest officials, two came under direct onslaught of the jumbo while the others sustained wounds while trying to escape from the frenzied animal.
As per information, the injured forest officials were admitted to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar and later four of them were discharged after preliminary treatment. However, a forest guard was being put up for extensive treatment as he sustained grievous injuries.
Sources said, the jumbo named Ramu along with a herd of about 30 elephants has been wreaking havoc in Khordha and Tangi forest divisions for quite some time. In order to stop recurrence of frequent man-animal conflicts and property damages, the Odisha government laid out a plan to fit radio collars on the body of elephants to monitor their movements.
As many as seven 'notorious' jumbos - four in Similipal National Park, while one elephant each in Chandaka, Tangi and Dhenkanal forest ranges - were identified to be tagged under the initiative. The government also roped in two wildlife tranquillizing experts from Bengaluru to help the local forest officials in the operation.
It is pertinent to mention here that a similar operation to tag an elephant had failed recently in Bharatpur.
While the latest episode of the failure in the radio-collaring initiative has prompted the forest department to put its programme on hold, the repeat of such incidents has not prevented many eyebrows especially from the community of wildlife experts.
Aspects like whether the animals are properly warded off from their herds, correct amount of dose used for tranquillisation and also use of trained (kumki) elephants need to be thoroughly looked at before executing such operations, said wildlife experts.
Kamalalochan Purohit, Former Deputy Director of Nandankanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar expressing concerns over the issue said that seeking the help of experienced forest officials with expertise in tracking elephants may help the government in fulfilling their mission.