IDUKKI: The forest department has suspended the mission to capture rogue tusker Arikomban for the day. The mission, which began at 4.30 in the morning, was temporarily stopped as the task force could not find Arikomban even by 12 noon.

Although the task force had spotted an elephant in the morning, they soon realised that it was not Arikomban. With the sunlight intensifying, the possibility of finding the elephant, tranquilizing it and moving it to another place has faded away. Following this, the GPS collar for Arikomban was brought back to the base camp. It is reported that the mission will continue again tomorrow morning. Although a team comprising more members conducted a search to locate the rogue tusker, it was not successful. The forest department has concluded that Arikomban is sleeping.

The forest department has explained that the elephant spotted in the morning by the task force was Chakkakomban, another wild elephant, and not Arikomban. Although the forest department managed to spot all other important elephants in the region, it was unable to locate Arikomban.