Two wild elephants went on a rampage in Mysore on Wednesday killing one person and injuring four others. Fear gripped Mysore as the forest department launched “operation capture”, along with the police and district administration, to bring the situation under control.
One tusker, aged eight, fatally gored security guard Renuka Prasad, 55, on Narayana Shastry Road and injured four others. The rampaging elephants also attacked cattle and damaged several vehicles.
The incident started at 5.30 am after a group of youngsters on their motorcycles blew their horns and threw stones at the two elephants that strayed into the city. The elephants soon got separated and panicked. At around 7 am a security guard found himself in the path of the rampaging younger elephant, and was fatally gored.
The elephants cut a debris-strewn path through Bamboo Bazaar, RMC Yard, Tilak Nagar, Sayyaji Road, Dhanavantri Road, Boti Bazaar, Devaraja Mohalla, Narayana Shastry Road, Devaraja Urs Road, Lakshmi Vilas Road, Saraswathipuram, Sainik Bhavan and Kukkarahalli Lake, covering half the city.
After nearly five hours of mayhem, relief came at around 11 am, when the juvenile pachyderm was successfully tranquilised and captured at Dobi Ghat near Kukkarahalli Lake. However, the operation to capture the other 12-year-old elephant continued till 6 pm and he was captured with the help of four Dasara elephants at Naidu Nagar on the outskirts of the city.
Forest officials, who were caught napping, failed to act quickly enough to mitigate the damage and tranquilise the elephants. Officials claim they were handicapped by the non-availability of a sufficient dosage of tranquiliser.