The 47-year-old elephant Laxmi that went missing two months ago has reportedly been found in a Delhi. As per sources, Wildlife officials on September 17, claimed that Laxmi was last kept hidden in I P Extension, Patparganj, for around 10-15 days which is less than a kilometre from the office of the DCP (East). The Delhi Police 'detained' the elephant along with its mahout, Saddam, from Yamuna Pusta area in the national capital around 3 am. The animal’s dung and footprints were found near Ghazipur in east Delhi on Tuesday. Reportedly, Laxmi is now safe and was given a bath and breakfast in the morning; the pachyderm will be sent to a rehabilitation centre in Haryana. The efforts to trace Laxmi were revived after media reports said the elephant had been seen in the city.

"We had launched a search operation on Tuesday to locate the elephant. Three teams comprising around 12 officials combed the areas along the banks of the Yamuna river and the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border."

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Rescuing Laxmi

Officials of the forest and wildlife department told PTI on Tuesday that the locations for searching Laxmi included Mayur Vihar, Akshardham, and Shakarpur, where the elephant was last seen on July 6, when forest department officials had gone to seize it. The forest department further stated that 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.

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

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Traces of the elephant

Reportedly, Forest and wildlife officials immediately rushed to the spot after receiving the information about the traces on Tuesday. But by the time they arrived at the spot, which they said was vacant land opposite a banquet hall, Laxmi and its caretaker were gone. All that remained was elephant dung, officials said. There were many witnesses who said that they had seen the elephant with two people till 11:30 am on Tuesday and some people also said that they used to see the elephant from the gate but rarely went inside.DCP (East) Jasmeet Singh said that efforts have been intensified to trace the elephant.

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 to alert it if they come to know about the whereabouts of the elephant. The department had also alerted the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau as it suspected that the elephant could have been taken to Nepal. 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.

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(With Inputs from PTI)