Delhi forest dept renews efforts to locate missing elephant

In its renewed effort to locate the 47-year-old female elephant that went missing two months ago, the Delhi government's forest department has set up three teams which are combing the national capital to seize the pachyderm and send it to a rehabilitation centre in Haryana.

The revival of efforts came after media reports said the elephant has been seen in the city.

Three teams, comprising around 12 officials, searched areas along the banks of the Yamuna river and the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border but have not been able to find the animal till now, an official of the forest and wildlife department told PTI.

The locations combed included Mayur Vihar, Akshardham and Shakarpur, where the elephant was last seen on July 6, when forest department officials had gone to seize it.

"If we are able to locate the elephant, we will seize it immediately. There's no stay on its seizure. It will be brought to the forest department's nursery at ITO and sent to Ban Santoor elephant rehabilitation centre after a medical examination is conducted and necessary arrangements are made for its transportation," another official of the forest department said.

The official also said that police are responsible for locating and seizing the elephant as an FIR had been filed in this regard.

The elephant, Laxmi, belongs to a family residing in Shakarpur. Since the owner could not make proper arrangements for housing, maintenance and upkeep of the pachyderm, the forest department had issued seizure notice in February this year.

The owner, Yusuf Ali (45), then moved the Delhi High Court, which said the forest department can seize the elephant only when "necessary arrangements for its transfer to the new site have been finalised".

Meanwhile, the forest department, which had sought approval from Ban Santoor elephant rehabilitation centre in Haryana to transfer the elephant, received confirmation from the state's chief wildlife warden on July 1 that Laxmi could be moved there.

On July 6, when a forest department team reached the site where the elephant was kept, Ali, his son and their relatives attacked them while the caretaker fled with the pachyderm and disappeared in the forests near Akshardham.

In August, the forest department wrote to chief wildlife wardens of all states asking them alert it if they come to know about the whereabouts of the elephant. The department also alerted the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau as it suspected that the elephant could be been taken to Nepal.