Police have registered case against four persons for ‘recklessly’ handling an elephant while it was being brought to a temple at Thuravoor in Alappuzha.

The four persons against whom case has been registered are the two mahouts, an assistant mahout and the owner of the vehicle in which the elephant, Balakrishnan, was being taken from Thrikakkara temple in Kochi to Rajeshwari Temple​ at Alappuzha in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The elephant had jumped off the the vehicle while it was being transported back to Alappuzha after the festival Thrikakkara temple.

The 45-year-old tusker smashed the wall of a house and damaged an auto rickshaw before getting trapped in a swamp at Ananthankari in Thuravoor.

It was dragged out of the marsh after a 17-hour operation, involving local people, police and elephant squad members of the forest department. It was later tranquilised. The elephant has now started taking food.

The district administration has summoned forest officials and directed a veterinary surgeon to diagnose the condition of the elephant.