The wild elephant ‘Ganesh’, which was captured by the forest department on Tuesday, escaped from captivity, officials informed here on Thursday.
The wild elephant on Wednesday night ran to the jungle, confirmed Principal Chief Conservator (PCCF), Wildlife Atul Shukla.
According to Shukla, Ganesh will not be re-captured soon.
“The scientists and veterinary doctors have opined that since the elephant was recently tranquilized it would be dangerous for its health to re-tranquilize and capture it,” the PCCF said.
He further informed that the department was keeping a close tab on the movement and activities of the wild elephant.
Notably, the wild elephant was captured by a team of experts and Kumki elephants on Tuesday.
As per the forest officials this rouge elephant was responsible for the death of 20 persons and damages caused to several houses and crops.
It may be mentioned that forest minister Mohammed Akbar during the recently concluded state assembly session had informed that there were 225 wild elephants in Chhattisgarh.
The department is attaching radio collars to wild elephants to track their movements and for this the department has signed a memorandum of understanding with Wild Life Institute of India (WII).
As per the MoU 12, wild elephants will be fitted with radio collars. Already five elephants got the radio collars. However, three out of five fell off due to different reasons.