Nearly three months after she ventured into the thick forests of Jaspur, woman elephant trainer Parbati Barua has the first catch. One wild tusker — now named Basant Bahadur — walked into her trap two days back.It was not an easy task for Barua as she had to abandon her ‘‘Operation Tusker’’ many times in her attempt to catch wild tuskers who freely move in the twin districts of Raigarh and Jaspur.Chief Wildlife Warden V.S. Silekar confirms that Barua, along with her trained female elephants — Laxmimala and Alka — and tranquiliser guns, has managed to catch one tusker and that it will be tamed. N.K. Bishen, a forester at Kanha (MP), who is a known tranquiliser expert assisted her in catching the animal.Barua has set up a base camp at Dharamjaigarh and the Rs 36-lakh operation is likely to continue for six months. Barua has been engaged by the State Forest Department to catch 16 wild elephants that were spotted in the north-eastern belt, bordering Jharkhand.In the past three years, the elephants have killed at least 30 people and property worth Rs 30 lakh have been damaged. Silekar says Barua is confident of catching all the wild tuskers. The world’s only woman elephant trainer, Barua has tamed over 1,000 wild tuskers in the past. She received international recognition in 1998 following an operation involving wild elephants that had been spreading destruction in Midnapore in West Bengal.
