Farmers pin hopes on forest department

The district forest department has only three more days to keep its assurance given to the farmers to translocate the wild elephants – Vinayakan and Chinna Thambi – before December 9. The department gave the assurance during a meeting held on Sunday.

With the forest department yet to take a final call on the issue, uncertainty prevails over the fate of the wild elephants even as farmers and animal activists root for their translocation.

M Mahalakshmi, a farmer, said three acres of her farmland remain idle for the past one-and-half years because of the fear of wild elephant raid.

“The elephant movement into human habitats has become frequent in the past two years and there is not a single place in Periyanaickenpalayam, especially Thadagam Valley, without the footprints of elephants. As the elephants started raiding crops daily, over 100 acres of land were left uncultivated,” Mahalakshmi said.

General secretary of Vivasaigal Sangam P Kandasamy said no longer we could bear the elephant menace and we want the officials to translocate the wild elephants before December 9.

“The forest department has tried all the possible ways to curb the elephant menace, but nothing worked out. The only option now left is to translocate the tuskers,” he said. “The department even tried driving away the wild elephants using three kumkis for the past one month,” he pointed out.

Wildlife activist Mac Mohan said, “There is no harm in translocating one problematic elephant for the welfare of the farmers. It is the responsibility of the forest department to identify whether the elephants are actually problematic or not.”

He said it is important to ensure that locals do not start hating wildlife because of the elephant menace. Without the support of locals, it is impossible to conserve the wildlife, he added President of Osai, an NGO, S Kalidasan said there are three elephants and a calf moving in the region and it is important to identify which is the problematic elephant before translocating them. It is also important to monitor the movement of elephants after they are translocated, he added. The wild elephants had been entering human habitations frequently ever since August and damaging crops. Since August, the death toll due to human-animal conflict has gone up to six in the region. As the department continuous to be cautious so as not to taste another bitter experience, the farmers are clinging on to the last piece of hope that they have on the forest department.

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