Forest officials on Tuesday evening tranquilised a wild elephant which had strayed into Guwahati sparking panic and causing traffic snarls almost the whole day.
Though the forest officials were trying to send the elephant off from Panjabari area which is close to Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary, the job became difficult due to the increasing crowd. This led the route of the elephant to the heart of the city. The elephant strayed in the residential areas in the wee hours of Tuesday.
Assam forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya said that it took some time to tranquillise the elephant.
“The officials and vets concerned need to calculate the amount of medicine they would use as per the size and other measurements of the elephants. Apart from that due to the chaos created by the crowd, it ran from place to place. So, it got delayed. But I must thank the forest officials to have administered it successfully. Thankfully the elephant is not injured,” Suklabaidya told Outlook.
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After providing the necessary treatment, the elephant will be sent to the wild again with the help from domesticated elephants from Assam State Zoo.
The elephant had earlier created panic and chaos in the busy GS road in the heart of the city. The traffic was halted as the gentle jumbo walked passed the vehicles and noisy crowds.
People on the busy GS Road were in shock, watching the gentle giant walk past them on Tuesday afternoon. The wild elephant was separated from its herd while looking for food.
“I have seen him gently pushing a few vehicles just to make his way under the Ganeshguri flyover. It was absolute chaos among the crowd who gathered along the road,” said Deepak Jha, an eye-witness.
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Human-animal conflict has increased a lot in Guwahati, a city surrounded by hills and forests. Prior to this also, elephants and leopards have got into the city but this is probably for the first time that it has tread in the GS Road in broad daylight.
