Navakkarai, a small sleepy hamlet tucked away near the Western Ghats, on the Coimbatore Highway, has suddenly started bustling with activity thanks to ‘Mission Madukkarai Maharaj’. The operation, as weighty as it sounds, involves tranquillising, transporting and translocating a 27-year-old wild tusker that has been spreading terror in this part of the world with frequent jaunts to human habitations. The Forest Department has set up a base camp at Navakkarai for the purpose.
On Day 1 of the mission, 37-year old Pari, a kumki (trained elephant) from the Chadivayal elephant camp of the department, arrived in the hamlet, drawing scores of school-going children from the neighbouring areas. Pari was later joined by Vijay, another elephant from Mudumalai, and Sujay, who was the brother of Vijay and Pari’s camp mate. The department had initially named the operation ‘Encounter’, borrowing the moniker that the villagers had given the tusker. However, the operation was later renamed ‘Mission Madukkarai Maharaj’.
