Jumbo scare grips Palakkad village again

PALAKKAD: Fear has gripped Arangottukulambu area in Malampuzha as
wild elephants returned to human habitats on Friday and raided crops.

Forest department officials burst crackers and threw fire balls to drive
away the three wild elephants that returned to the area. They have now
crossed the Korayar River and went to the Valiyeri forest area but they
may return any time, residents said.

Last year, a farmer was killed by wild elephants at his rubber farm at
Arangottukulambu and attacked two women. Last week, another farmer
had a narrow escape from attack by wild elephants at Akkakunnu near
Walayar.

Residents said that three wild tuskers were camping in Arangottukulambu area for the past couple of months.

The elephants raided paddy, plantain and coconut cultivation.

The elephants also destroyed water pipes used for irrigation purposes and pumping motors in farms.

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HC gives nod to capture roaming wild elephant

Chennai, Feb 13 (PTI) The Madras High Court Wednesday gave its nod to capture and put in captivity a wild elephant which has been venturing into human habitats in Coimbatore and neighbouring districts in recent days.

A bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Tamil Nadu principal chief conservator of forest to pass appropriate orders for capturing the 25-year-old elephant, nicknamed “Chinnathambi” and keep it in captivity.

It gave the order on a PIL filed by animal welfare organisation People for Cattle in India (PFCI), which sought framing of suitable guidelines for translocation and rehabilitation of elephants and systematic study of man-elephant conflicts in forest fringes.

“The averments, submissions and report of the expert Ajay Desai all warrant capture of the elephant Chinnathambi,” it said.

The bench made it clear that the physical discomfort to the elephant while capturing and transporting should be kept to the minimum and adequate measures should be made for its safe journey to the place of captivity.

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Wild elephant shouldn’t be put to any discomfort: Madras HC tells forest dept

Chennai, Feb 4 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Monday sought response from Tamil Nadu’s principal conservator of forests by February 11 to a plea seeking a direction to prevent authorities from capturing, taming, tranquilising or harming a wild elephant which has been venturing into human habitats.

In an interim order, a division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad said the jumbo should not, in anyway, be put through any physical discomfort.

The jumbo, nicknamed ‘Chinnathambi’ by locals, was translocated from the outskirts of Coimbatore to Varagaliar by forest department personnel on January 25.

The move followed complaints from residents about the elephant destroying crops and damaging houses for the last seven months.

The bench said, “The intention of the Tamil Nadu government appears that the elephant should live in its natural habitat…apprehension of the public is also to be taken note of.” Additional chief principal conservator of forests submitted it was not possible to just capture the jumbo and make it a ‘kumki’ (tamed elephant).

The bench, after passing the order, posted the matter to February 11 for filing the counter.

The petitioner sought the elephant’s translocation and rehabilitation by framing guidelines and systematically studying man-elephant conflict in areas surrounded by forests.

Also, the petitioner said, steps should be taken to mitigate the conflict through alternative methods focused on conserving wildlife.

To this, the advocate general, appearing on behalf of the government, submitted that elephant expert Ajay Desai and other forest officials had gone to the forest area to chase the elephant, which is now in Amaravathi area, back into the jungles.

The principal chief conservator, who appeared before the bench, said all elephants cannot be used as ‘kumkis’.

“We first planned first to send Chinnathambi into the Mudumalai forest area and there is no idea to make the elephant a ‘kumki’. Such a decision would be the last one (option) and we’re trying to send the elephant back into the forest,” he said.

The 25-year-old Chinnathambi was spotted near a railway station in nearby Tirupur district on Saturday.

In Coimbatore district, several environmentalists and animal lovers on Monday expressed concern over moves to tame Chinnathambi and make him a ‘kumki’ and urged the government to drop the purported plan.

The group also submitted a petition to the district collector.

This is published unedited from the PTI feed.

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Farmers, villagers heave a sigh of relief

Coimbatore: Capturing of Vinayagan might not be the end of the problem. While farmers and villagers of Periyathadagam, Varapalayam, Pannimadai and Chinnathadagam heaved a sigh of relief after Vinayagan was captured, environmentalists and forest officials say translocating elephants is not a solution to man–elephant conflicts.

They say only a multi-pronged approach – digging elephant proof trenches, setting up solar fences and improving fodder and water sources inside jungle - would solve the issue.

Chief conservator of forests (CCF), Coimbatore circle, Deepak Srivastava said capturing and translocating an elephant is not a solution.

“As per the elephant psychology, if the leader is taken out, there will be severe impact in the herd. Vinayagan and Chinnathambi were providing leadership for the herd,” Deepak Srivastava said.

He said CRPF at Kurudampalayam has blocked the migratory routes of wild elephants. “Migratory paths have been compromised. There should not be any structures on the migratory path. A study is on to analyze the migratory pattern of the elephants and the factors leading them to enter human habitats,” Deepak Srivatsava said.

“We are trying to take preventive measures. We are profiling the elephants to find out the problematic ones. This would help to prevent man-animal conflicts. We will create green fodder banks inside the reserve forest and water facilities. We will use the advanced technology to monitor the wild elephants. So, we can avoid elephants’ intrusion into villages,” he said.

“We have submitted a proposal to the government for real-time monitoring of the elephant movement. We will install 12 censor thermal cameras in vantage points from Thondamuthur, Boluvampatti and few more areas and we can easily track the wild elephants,” Deepak Srivastava said.

Activist GPN Joshua said, “In Thadagam valley, brick kiln units are involved in sand mining. It affected the movements of elephants. Many educational institutions have also come up along the elephant corridors. When its pathways are blocked, the elephants were forced to enter villages.”

State general secretary of Vivasayigal Sangam (non-political, non-communal and non-religion) P Kandasamy welcomed the forest department for translocating Vinayagan. “We demand the forest department to capture and translocate ‘Chinnathambi’ as well,” said Kandasamy.

He said the forest department should arrange a meeting with farmers, environmental activists, ministers, MLAs, MPs, forest, revenue, agriculture department officials to find a permanent solution for man-animal conflict.

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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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Jumbo havoc in Purulia

A herd of 20-25 wild elephants that has strayed into the Ayodhya foothills in Purulia have been destroying crops in six villages for the past one week.

The elephants from Odisa and the Dalma range in Jharkhand have injured a villager, destroyed paddy across 10 hectares and damaged a dozen mud houses.

But as the elephants create havoc in the villages, tourists are excited and plan to see the jumbos.

Forest officials in Purulia said the elephants had split in small groups and were entering human habitats after sunset to feed on paddy that was almost mature for harvesting, and also vegetables from the fields.

Forest officials said it was tough to locate the elephants and chase them back to the Dalma range as the villages they were entering were inside thick forests. That the jumbos come at night and are splitting into small groups are not helping either.

“We are chasing the elephants back to the forest with the help of hula parties (groups of villagers trained to drive away wild elephants), but they are again entering the villages. The area is surrounded by large swathes of forests and hills, which are providing cover to the elephants,” said Dulal Chandra Bauri, the beat officer of the Matha forest range in Baghmundi.

The villagers said they were avoiding going out of home after sunset for fear of the elephants. Traders at Baghmundi are closing their shops before dusk and the villages wear a deserted look after sundown.

The villagers said they were spending sleepless nights fearing that the elephants might attack them anytime.

Parikhit Mahato, 60, who was injured in the elephant attack, has been admitted to a local hospital. One of the elephants lifted him with its trunk when he was returning from the forest after collecting dry logs and hurled him to the ground.

Forest officials said Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Birbhum, West Midnapore and East and West Burdwan — with large swathes of forests and rivers flowing through them — are part of the corridor elephants from Odisha and the Dalma range use. For the past few years elephants have been regularly straying into human habitats.

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Man-jumbo conflict in Assam’s Udalguri: 2 killed, 1 hurt in jumbo attack

The Udalguri district, under Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD), has witnessed a steady rise in human-elephant conflict over the past decade.

The illegal human encroachment in the age-old elephant corridors of Udalguri district bordering Bhutan has posed serious threat to ecology of the district

Unabated felling of trees in Khalingduar Reserve Forest and Bornadi Wildlife Sanctuary has led to destruction of the green cover compelling wild elephants to roam in human habitats. The Indo-Bhutan border region is fraught with human-animal conflicts resulting in deaths of several elephants and human lives since the 1980s and such incidents have been continuing to take place in the district.

In the last 24 hours, two separate incidents of man-elephant conflict have jolted the Indo-Bhutan border populace.

Two persons were killed and one was injured critically in wild jumbo attack within last 24 hours in Garuajhar area under Panery Police Station in Udalguri.

As per reports, one 48-year-old tea garden labourer, identified as Pitus Tigda, was trampled to death in Uttar Garuajhar area on Monday night.


In another incident, a mother-son duo was attacked at Niz Garuajhar on Tuesday morning.

A 24-year-old youth, identified as Ashraful Ali, succumbed to his injuries while his mother, 55-year-old Meharjan Begum, has been battling for life.

Forest sources claimed that a makhana (male elephant without tusk), which is hell-bent on causing harm, is behind both the incidents. It has claimed many human lives in the recent past.

“In last one year alone, Udalguri has witnessed seven human and eight wild elephant deaths due to man-elephant encounters. It is obvious that an increasing human population in a critical wildlife habitat is one of the main reasons for the conflicts,” said Nabajyoti Baruah, a well-known wildlife activist of Udalguri.


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Man-jumbo conflict in Assam’s Udalguri: 2 killed, 1 hurt in jumbo attack

The Udalguri district, under Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD), has witnessed a steady rise in human-elephant conflict over the past decade.

The illegal human encroachment in the age-old elephant corridors of Udalguri district bordering Bhutan has posed serious threat to ecology of the district.

Unabated felling of trees in Khalingduar Reserve Forest and Bornadi Wildlife Sanctuary has led to destruction of the green cover compelling wild elephants to roam in human habitats. The Indo-Bhutan border region is fraught with human-animal conflicts resulting in deaths of several elephants and human lives since the 1980s and such incidents have been continuing to take place in the district.

In the last 24 hours, two separate incidents of man-elephant conflict have jolted the Indo-Bhutan border populace.

Two persons were killed and one was injured critically in wild jumbo attack within last 24 hours in Garuajhar area under Panery Police Station in Udalguri.

As per reports, one 48-year-old tea garden labourer, identified as Pitus Tigda, was trampled to death in Uttar Garuajhar area on Monday night.


To read the full article, click on the story title.