This is no al Qaeda heavyweight, but an elephant named after Osama bin Laden has finally been caught after killing five Indian villagers.
Wildlife officers using drones and domesticated elephants tracked down the rampaging pachyderm dubbed “Laden” in northeastern Assam state, according to AFP.
“We started the final leg of the operation today. … Two darts were fired by experts which had tranquilized the male elephant,” a senior forestry official told the news service.
“Now the work is on to shift the elephant to a forest where there is no human habitation nearby.”
The beast killed five people, including three women, during a terror-filled 24 hours through Goalpara district in October.
Officials deciding where it would be relocated said they would take the elephant’s welfare into account as well as the safety of people living nearby.
About 2,300 people have been killed by elephants in India in the last five years, while 700 elephants have been killed since 2011, according to the report.
Elephants frequently migrate into Goalpara, resulting in many fatal encounters with people amid rampant deforestation.
Some elephants have been poisoned or shot by locals, while others have died on electric fences or on railroads cutting through migration routes.
