Chittoor: Forest officials trap wild elephant

Chittoor: Effective steps have been planned for controlling the movement of the elephants while the lone wild elephant which killed a couple at Ramapuram village in Gudipala mandal was caught in a hectic opera-tion, according to District Forest Officer N Chaithanaya Kumar Red-dy.

It may be recalled that the said wild elephant trampled to death one Venkatesh and his wife Selvi of Ramapuram village on Tuesday. The State government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the deceased.

Chittoor MLA A.Srinivasulu handed over the cheque of Rs 10 lakh to the members of bereaved family on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, the DFO said that a hectic exercise has been initiated to trap the wild elephant with the help of the two trained cookies (trained elephants). The lone wild ele-phant was trapped on Thursday.

The elephant was given tranquiliser and it was caught safe, he added. He said that effective measures would be taken up for arresting the movement of the elephants.

He admitted that elephant menace has become rampant in the dis-trict though several precautionary measures were taken up earlier.