Longer version; Wild elephants that caused havoc destroying crops, killing people captured in Eight hours in India

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Operation Vinayak capturing a wild jumbo who created ruckles in village hamlets near periyanayakanpayalam of Coimbatore district using Tamed kumki elephants is on full swing... Two wild tuskers named vinayagam and chinnathambi often entered farm lands and destroyed them. Human lives were also lost to this wild tuskers. Unbearable losses of their near and dear ones and their farm yield made the people to give continuous pressure to the forest department to capture those elephants. After a couple of months the forest department derived an Operation named operation Vinayak to capture those wild tuskers and to rehabilitate it in the nearby forest. As a part of the mission 4 kumki elephants rounded the wild elephant and a vaccine was injected to make it unconscious so that it may be easy for capturing and for transportation. 4 medical teams were deployed in handling this tusker. It took more than eight hours for the veterinary team and experts to successfully load the animal with the help of two two Kumkis Vijay and Wasim.

The elephant was darted twice respectively and was administered a 11 ml sedation of Xylaxene and Ketamine combination. An additional mild sedation of the same combination was later given to bring the elephant under control.

An attempt was made to , tie a radio collar around its neck to monitor the animal after translocating it to Mudumalai.

During the loading, an important rope tied to control the animal cut off making the job difficult. In addition, the two Kumkis were also finding it difficult to control the 30 to 35-year-old Vinayakan who is in musth.

According to Deepak Srivastava, Chief Conservator of Forests of Coimbatore Circle, the animal would be released in a forest patch connection Bandipur, Mudumalai and Wayanad later today.

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Three kumkis shifted to Periyathadagam

Surveillance stepped up to monitor wild elephants
The Forest Department on Tuesday shifted the three kumkis from Varapalayam area to Periyathadagam to step up surveillance and monitor wild elephants.

The kumkis - Cheran, Vijay and Bomman - were taken to Periyathadagam on Tuesday afternoon to prevent the wild elephants from straying out of forest.

Sources in Varapalayam said that the Forest Department shifted the kumkis to Periyathadagam after Chinna Thambi, one of the elephants which the department has plans to capture and translocate from Thadagam valley, moved to the area with a herd on Tuesday.

A female elephant with its calf, which had attacked people on several occasions, also moved to Periyathadagam, added sources.

An official from the Forest Department said that Ajay Desai, a consultant for the World Wildlife Fund and member of Asian elephants specialist group of International Union for Conservation of Nature, visited the human-elephant conflict areas on Tuesday.

The department had sought expert opinion from Mr. Desai to mitigate the conflict situation.

Meanwhile, Vinayagan, another wild elephant likely to be captured and translocated from Thadagam, moved to Mel Maruthungarai and Keel Maruthungarai area. The giant tusker is said to be in musth.

Assistant Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Deepak Srivastava on Sunday had assured farmers that one of the wild elephants that was entering human habitations would be captured within a week.

The Forest Department has plans to bring one or two kumkis from Mudumalai Tiger Reserve to Thadagam for the capture and translocation of wild elephants.

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Rogue elephants still roaming around Thadagam valley

Coimbatore: Despite mounting pressure from farmers who has been seeking respite from two rogue elephants in Thadagam valley, the forest department is in no hurry to capture the elephants as it had a bitter experience in the past. The department is to seek opinion from farmers, wildlife activists and experts on the issue before taking a final call. During a grievance meeting in the city on Friday, a group of farmers raised their demand of translocating the elephants – Chinna Thambi and Vinayaka – as the damage caused by them continue despite deploying four kumkis to drive them deep into the forests. The farmers demanded a solution both from district collector TN Hariharan and district forest officer (DFO) D Venkatesh. After consulting with his superiors, the DFO asked the farmers to participate in a meeting at his office on Sunday to share their opinions on this issue with officials from the forest department and veterinary doctors. The forest department has assured to take a final call within a week after the meeting, announced the district collector which made the farmers to disperse with hope. “The district collector had written to chief wildlife warden TP Ragunath requesting him to grant permission to translocate the elephants. He had also assured that the elephant menace would be solved by November 25, but nothing has changed. In the last four months, the death toll has increased to seven in the region,” district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam P Kandasamy said. “Why does the department remain silent when the death toll and damage caused by the elephants are increasing every other day,” he questioned. The department is afraid to answer wildlife activists and NGOs if some untoward incidents takes place while translocating the elephants, he said. “For one last time, we believe the words of officials. If no action was taken, then we will act differently,” he warned. “The department has been taking actions to control the damage caused by the wild elephants. The chief wildlife warden has granted permission to translocate the elephant, as well. But, we do not want to act in hurry. We have sought opinion from farmers, wildlife activists and experts,” chief conservator of forest (CCF) of Coimbatore circle Deepak Srivastava said. “In 2017, when the department was translocating a wild elephant, Madukkarai Maharajan, it died. We do not want a similar situation to arise,” he said. Meanwhile, he has sought a report pertaining to the damage caused by the elephants after the deployment of kumkis to access the behavior of the elephants. In the first week of December, an elephant expert would land in Coimbatore to study the behavior of the wild elephants and recommend a suitable solution, he added.

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In India, an elephant wins freedom from tourist rides and the illegal wildlife trade

It is a heartrending story, but with a happy ending for one elephant. Suman is born into captivity to Champa, one of dozens of elephants who are used to ferry tourists up and down the hills to Amer Fort, a popular spot in Jaipur, India. When Suman is still a calf, her overworked mother, to whom she is very close, falls severely ill and passes away.

Suman, stressed and agitated by her mother’s death, would have faced a life similar to her mother’s – as an elephant giving joy rides to tourists — if not for the relentless efforts of Humane Society International and our partner in India, People for Animals. Last week, in response to a court case filed by HSI/India and PFA challenging the legality of Suman’s ownership, a court ruled that the 10-year-old elephant should be handed over to the state wildlife department. Suman is now being moved to a state-run rescue facility and we hope she will be soon moved to a sanctuary where she can spend the rest of her life in peace and in the company of other elephants.

Elephants in India are a beleaguered species and they face many threats, including habitat loss due to environmental degradation, human-animal conflict, poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, in which Suman was caught up. Studies show that the number of Asian elephants has dropped by at least 50 percent over the last three generations.

It is estimated that 3,500 elephants in India now live in captivity. India’s Wildlife Protection Act, passed in 1972, makes it illegal to capture elephants for commercial purposes, but people who already “owned” elephants at the time the law was passed were allowed to keep them so long as they obtained an ownership certificate. Unfortunately, like Suman, most of the elephants now in captivity are being held illegally and without the required papers.


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