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Journalism of Courage
In an interim order, a division bench of Kerala High Court has stayed till March 29 the forest department’s decision to capture a wild elephant known as Arikomban (rice tusker), which has been terrorising the higher ranges of Idukki district. The order has led to protests in areas affected by the elephant’s “menace”.
The bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and P Gopinath acted upon a petition filed by a forum of animal lovers — People for Animals – Thiruvananthapuram — challenging the plan to capture the rogue tusker with tranquiliser shots and later shift it to an elephant training centre at Kodanad in Ernakulam district. Thrissur-based Walking Eye for Animal Advocacy also impleaded in the matter, which the bench considered in a late night sitting on Thursday.
Challenging the forest department’s operation to capture the elephant, ‘Mission Arikomban’, the petitioner pleaded that instead of lodging the wild elephant in captivity, it should be radio-collared and released in another location of the forest.
The court directed the forest department to submit a report on the options demanded by the petition in the next hearing on March 29 and stayed all activities related to the mission till then.
The petitioners also moveda a PIL in this regard on Friday in the court, which would be taken up by the division bench on March 29.
The Kerala Forest Department has made sweeping arrangements to capture Arikomban, which has a history of blood-stained conflicts with people of Chinnakkanal and Santhanpara panchayats in Idukki district. The operation was originally slated to begin on March 25 but was postponed by a day considering the ongoing school examinations.
The wild elephant has been named Arikomban by the local people because of its habit of raiding rice shops. After its capture, the forest department want to train Arikomban into a 'kumki', a captive elephant used for operations against rogue elephants. In fact, some of the existing 'Kumki' elephants are to be a part of 'Mission Arikomban'.
Residents of Santhanpara and Chinnakanal panchayats on Friday protested against the High Court’s stay on the mission. Santhanpara panchayat president Liju Varghese said, “We were all expecting that the menace would be over with the capture of Arikomban. People are pained over the High Court stay. The elephant had wreaked havoc in the region, we had lost lives and dwellings. We would not allow the forest department to take back the kumki elephants (brought to track the rogue tusker) in the wake of the High Court stay.”
Arikomban has trampled at least 10 people to death and destroyed around 60 houses and shops in the past few years. In the last one year, it has raided a single public distribution system shop in the region as many as eight times. Recently, the elephant waylaid a truck and pulled down a bag of grains. The residents say the rice tusker prefers to eat rice, atta and wheat.
The forest department had built a 71-member rapid response team, spread into 11 groups and headed by chief forest veterinary surgeon Arun Zackariah for the mission.
The plan was to lure the elephant by converting a dilapidated building at Chinnakanal into a provisions store where rice and other grains would be stocked, said officials.
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