Udhagamandalam  :

A sharp shooter from Masinagudi village in the Nilgiris returned home after successfully managing to drive a rogue elephant back to forest area in Jharkhand last week despite orders from the Bihar government to shoot it. The tusker killed eight people in Bhagalpur area in Bihar in a span of four days in the first week of June.

Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, a shooter from Hyderabad, is currently a resident of Masinagudi.

An authorized tranquilizer of wildlife, Khan was called by the Bihar forest department on June 5 as a rogue tusker had strayed into Bihar from the adjoining forests of Jharkhand. “While I was capturing blue bulls in forests around Delhi, I received a call from the Bihar forest department,” Khan told TOI.

Khan has trained forest officers and veterinarians of Karnataka, Telengana, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.

The rogue tusker, aged about 20, had entered the town of Bhagalpur in Bihar on June 4 and in a span of four days it killed eight people, including three women and a child, who came in its way.

Khan was summoned to kill the elephant and he flew to Patna from Delhi and from there he was flown to Bhagalpur by the chief minister’s special aircraft. Armed with his 470 double barrel rifle he took charge as designated chief of ‘Operation Rogue Elephant’ and over 100 forest officials were in the operation team to assist him.

Khan said he didn’t want to kill the elephant as it was very young and instead strategically made the pachyderm follow him to the nearest forest which was 12km away in Jharkhand.

“I am happy that during the operation neither the animal nor any human was harmed,” he said.

Khan returned home a couple of days ago after being applauded by the chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar for his efforts.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by Shantha Thiagarajan, TNN / June 15th, 2015