Ending an operation that lasted over five days, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department officials successfully tranquillised wild elephant, Arikompan also known as Arisikompan, at Uthamapalayam in the Chinna Ovulapuram reserve forest in Theni district, early on Monday, June 5, 2023.
Sources said Arikomban will be released at Muththukuzhivayal beyond Upper Gothaiyar area in Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR).
A large posse comprising officials and ground staff from multiple departments led by the Forest Department had been closely monitoring the pachyderm for the past week, via a GPS-aided radio collar on it.
The tranquillised tusker Arikompan is being transported in a truck on June 5, 2023, by Forest Department officials in Theni district | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
T.N. Additional Chief Secretary, Environment Climate Change and Forests, Supriya Sahu, in a tweet said the tusker has been safely tranquillised in the early hours of Monday, in Cumbum’s East Range forest by Forest Department veterinary surgeons and other officials. She added that the tusker would be translocated to a suitable habitat where officials will continue to monitor the pachyderm.
Section 144 lifted
Arikompan had entered Cumbum on the morning of May 27, leading to the district administration invoking Section 144, prohibiting residents from stepping out of their dwellings until further orders. On Monday, Theni District Collector R. V. Shajeevana, in a press release said with the mission concluded successfully, the district administration would lift the prohibitory orders with immediate effect.
Residents in Cumbum and Gudalur municipalities and those in K. Pudupatti, Kamayakoundanpatti and other town panchayats can carry on with their regular work without any hindrance. However, the Collector appealed to the public to cooperate with government officials.
Arikompan elephant, which was captured near Erasappanaickanur in Theni district, on June 5, 2023, is being transported to Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in Tirunelveli district. Photo: Special Arrangement
The pachyderm was transported in a truck by Forest Department officials, and as the vehicle entered villages, residents lined up in large numbers on the roadside and hailed officials for successfully capturing the tusker. Many residents took photographs and posted them on social media platforms.
After the elephant had entered Cumbum town last week, officials, who were initially taken aback, chased the animal into the forest. However, before moving to the Megamalai forest, Arikompan had damaged a few properties and also injured a janitor, who later died at a government hospital. Over the past two days, Arikompan was spotted near the Shanmuganadhi Dam and had reportedly damaged a closed ration shop in the vicinity.
A senior official from the Forest Department told The Hindu that surveillance on Arikompan would continue even after its release deep into a forest.
Given a shower
As the heat dehydrated the tranquilised tusker while being taken in the truck from Chinna Ovulaapuram to Upper Gothaiyar, it was given a shower after it crossed Kayathar area in Thoothukudi district.
Since the tusker, which had sustained an injury in the trunk, started hitting the truck driver’s cabin with its tusks, another dose of tranquiliser was administered when the lorry reached Piraanchery, situated about 13 km from Palayamkottai on the Palayamkottai–Papanasam Road. Though arrangements had been made to give the second shower at Cheranmahadevi at 4.30 p.m., it was not done to the pachyderm due to delayed travel of the truck carrying the wild animal.
When the truck reached the Manimuthar Dam checkpost around 5.40 p.m., the journalists’ vehicles which were following the truck from Gangaikondan near Tirunelveli were stopped. After crossing the Manimuthar Falls Bridge at 6 p.m., the truck started moving up slowly along the badly damaged ghat road even as dusk set in.
The police removed a group of nine persons when they attempted to protest near the Manimuthar Dam checkpost against the decision to release the problematic Arikomban near Upper Gothaiyaar.
Since the travel between Maimuthar Dam checkpost and the scenic Maanjolai, which is full of teagardens, would usually take an hour due to the badly damaged 23-km long ghat road, the truck carrying Arikomban moved slowly. Two earthmovers had been sent to Naalumukku, one of the five residential areas in this region of Western Ghats situated about 20 km beyond Maanjolai, to facilitate the travel of the truck carrying the elephant to Upper Gothaiyaar without much difficulty.
Condemning the Forest Department’s decision to release in KMTR the captured Arikomban, which they claimed had killed several persons, a group of Kaani Tribes living in three settlements near Papanasam and Servalar Dams, staged demonstration near the Papanasam checkpost on Monday evening.
“The pachyderm, which has the history of raiding residential colonies inside the forest and the villages close to the forest boundary, will easily reach the Kaani tribal hamlets inside the forest to cause man–animal conflict,” a villager feared.
One petition closed, another filed
Taking into account that the elephant had been tranquilised and would be translocated, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday closed a public interest litigation petition.
The petition filed by M. Gopal of Cumbum in Theni district had sought a direction to the State to constitute a team of experts to assess the damage caused to property and people by the elephant, pay compensation and hand over the elephant to the Kerala government.
The State informed a Division Bench of Justices R. Subramanian and L. Victoria Gowri that after considerable effort, Arikomban was successfully captured and tranquilised in Theni district. It would be translocated to the KMTR.
With regard to the compensation, the State told the court that compensation was paid in a death case and for a damaged autorickshaw. With regard to the other damages, it was being assessed and compensation would be provided, it was submitted.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Joseph of Ernakulam in Kerala filed a public interest litigation petition before the same court seeking a direction to the authorities to translocate the elephant to a place which was known to the elephant rather than an unknown territory. The petition will be heard on June 6.
(With inpurts from Tirunelveli and Madurai)
