It’s all over for Chinna Thambi, India’s most loved rogue elephant, as he was finally captured after his latest rampage through the south Indian countryside. <br /><br />Video of his capture shows a combined team of forest officials and tame elephants successfully trapping him on the morning of February 15, ending his free run.<br /><br />The team cornered him at a sugarcane field in Udumalaipet in Tamil Nadu state, and lured him outside with a jackfruit, his favourite snack. As he came out they tranquillised him with dart guns and tied him up with ropes with the help of captive elephants.<br /><br />He was then loaded to a truck which will take him to his new home, an elephant camp at Top Slip forest, where he will be trained as a kumki, or tame elephant. <br /><br />Chinna Thambi was captured at a Thadagam village in Coimbatore in late January after local villagers protested over his crop-raiding habits. <br /><br />Though forest officials moved him to a forest 80 kms away, he refused to stay put and re-emerged shortly after by raiding crops near his new home, causing further farmer protests. <br /><br />Despite his notoriety, Chinna Thambi was also hugely popular as he would never attack anyone. Known as a gentle giant, he would just limit himself to raiding crops and even homes for food. <br /><br />Chinna Thambi fan clubs sprouted and there was a campaign in recent days to keep him free. But on February 13, the Madras High Court ruling following the petition that forest officials were to capture him, sealing his fate.
