Tamil Nadu Forest Department personnel are camping at the base near Kalakkad-Mundanthurai forest range to monitor the movement of wild tusker Arikomban, after it was tranquilised and captured from Cumbum in Theni district and relocated to this forest area on Monday, June 5. Forest officials said the elephant had taken a refreshing bath in the lower Gothaiyar dam area on Tuesday.
The forest officials are monitoring the animal through the signals emanating from the radio collar which was attached to the animal when it was tranquilised and captured in Chinnakanal, Idukki district of Kerala on April 29. The elephant Arikomban hit headlines due to its constant raids of ration shops in Chinnakanal for getting rice, its favourite food. Several shops and human settlements were destroyed by the elephant during its frequent raids in Idukki. The Tamil Nadu forest department captured the elephant after it entered Cumbum town and wreaked havoc, even causing the death of one person who fell down from his two wheeler after the elephant brushed past it.
However, animal lovers are opposed to the treatment meted out to the elephant. There were protests at the forest check posts when the forest ambulance carrying the elephant reached the border areas of the forest. Stephen Daniel, a wildlife activist based out of Coimbatore pointed out that the elephant has been tranquilised on two occasions — first in Kerala at Chinnakanal,and then again on last Saturday at Cumbum in Tamil Nadu. “Firing tranquilisers at the animal will affect its health. From Cumbum, it was standing in the forest ambulance for more than 11 hours at a stretch. The mental and physical agony the animal was undergoing is unfathomable and the forest departments of the two states have a lot of answers to give,” he said.
He also said that the wrong policies of the governments in power to develop human settlements in elephant routes are the root cause of the man-elephant conflicts. The activist said that instead of punishing the policymakers, the establishment was punishing the poor elephant.
The forest department officers, however, said that the elephant would have created a lot of damage in the human settlements of Cumbum if it was not captured and relocated to the deep forests in Kanniyakumari district.