KUNMING, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province said Wednesday that they have captured a rogue elephant that has stolen food from villagers, blocked traffic and busted into markets and schools over the past few days.
The male elephant named Nawen by the local Asian elephant monitoring center was sedated and sent to the local Asian elephant breeding and rescue center on Monday.
Last Thursday, a local emergency response team made up of workers from the forestry and grassland administration, animal disease prevention and control center and Asian elephant breeding center was sent to Jingna Township where the elephant was last seen.
The team with around 100 people have attempted to use drones to observe Nawen's activities but failed due to rainy weather the following days.
On Monday, the drone found that the elephant had approached a teaching building at a middle school near Jingna Township at 4 p.m. The elephant had lost his herd, which was about 1 km away.
The team approached Nawen and sedated him with a shot from a blowpipe at around 9:10 p.m.
Wild Asian elephants are Class A protected animals in China, with a population mainly scattered in Yunnan's Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna and in the cities of Pu'er and Lincang.
