Failure by cops to notice two wild pachyderms straying into the city led to the death of one person, as the animals went on a three hour rampage and brought Mysore to a standstill
Failure by cops to notice two wild pachyderms straying into the city led to the death of one person, as the animals went on a three hour rampage and brought Mysore to a standstillPolice patrolling the Bangalore-Mysore highway in the early hours of yesterday observed two wild elephants -- a mother and her calf -- that had been separated from their herd on the outskirts of the city. They ignored the animals confusing them with the tame ones belonging to the Mysore Palace. Their negligence however, led to the death of one person and damage to property and even prompted the authorities to declare a holiday in the city. The entire drama lasted three hours and took five tranquilizer darts to bring the situation under control, but the loss of a life appears to be the price for not paying attention to detail.
Tragic: The frantic pachyderm killed a security guard of an ATM atu00a0
shopping mall on Narayana Shastri Road. Pic/Madhusudan SR Utter confusionDCP Basavaraj Malagatti admitted that the patrol did notice the elephants, but due to confusion, could not react. Malagatti said, "The city has around seven tame elephants belonging to Mysore Palace and another four from various religious Mutts. The patrol party thought that these animals were tame and did not bother to inform the control room."
However, the damage had already been done by the time the police and forest officials could rally to the task at hand. The frantic pachyderms had created pandemonium in the heart of Mysore city and killed a security guard of an ATM atu00a0 shopping mall on Narayana Shastri Road, besides injuring many others. Malagatti continued to maintain that the police swung into action after being informed that the elephants were entering the city. One animal was tranquilised, secured and shifted to elephant camp in Dubare, Kodagu district.
In addition, two tame male elephants, Abhimanyu and Arjuna belonging to the Forest Department arrived in trucks from Nagarahole elephant camp in Thithimathi, Kodagu. They were taken to the sewage treatment plant to coax the wild female elephant into submission.
Chief Conservator of Forests (Elephants) Ajay Mishra told MiD DAY, "The animals were agitated after panic stricken passers-by created a furor and as a result they went on a rampage," he said.
No practice?Forest department officials were also caught napping and while the forest guards frantically fired tranquilisers at the elephants to bring them down, the animals showed little signs of slowing down. Mishra said that though the guards are trained to tackle such situations, they failed to ascertain the exact dosage to be administered while tranquilizing an elephant.
