GUWAHATI, Nov 5 - The Forest Department on Monday decided to translocate the problematic elephant which reportedly killed five people in Goalpara on October 29.
The decision was taken at a meeting between Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya, Head of Forest Force & PCCF AM Singh and members of the committee formed to study the elephant.
The bull elephant was spotted inside Satabari Reserve Forest under Ronjuli range on November 1 last with the help of a drone. Its movement is being monitored since then.
�It has been more or less established that it is not the same elephant (Laden) which had been responsible for killing of over 30 people in the district during the last two years. It is a new individual, probably in musth. So we decided to give it the benefit of doubt and not capture it. However, it will be translocated so that there are no more human deaths,� a forest official said.
At least nine human casualties have been reported so far in the man-elephant conflict- hit Goalpara district.
�The elephant will be kept under observation till a plan to translocate the pachyderm is finalised. We are yet to decide where to take it. A lot of factors will have to be taken into consideration,� the official said.
The Forest Department has also arranged kunkis (trained elephants) to locate and monitor the elephant closely.
For the last one year, the Forest Department had been contemplating on capturing and translocating the wild jumbo �Laden� which had been creating terror in the Rongjuli-Krishnai-Goalpara belt. Laden � an �outcast� from a herd � has also been moving around alone since quite sometime now.
There are two herds of elephants which move around in the Rongjuli-Goalpara area which come down from the Garo Hills.
