When the jungle comes to town

As human deaths from animal encounters rise, the Wildlife Protection Act is being criticised for making people more vulnerable

- NIRMAL JOVIAL

ON MAY 30, Palraj, a 57-year-old resident of Cumbum in Tamil Nadu, became the latest victim of Arikomban. The rogue wild tusker had been captured by the Kerala government from Idukki district in April and released into the Periyar National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary close to the Tamil Nadu border. According to its radio collar, the elephant crossed forest ranges and, on May 27, entered densely populated areas of Cumbum resulting in chaos and the fatal attack on Palraj.

Official records said Palraj was Arikomban's eighth victim. But residents of Idukki say the tusker's victims are in the double digits. Estimated to be 35 years old, it got its name because of frequent raids on shops for rice (ari means rice and komban is tusker). It has been causing trouble in Idukki, a high-range district that is a hotbed of human-wildlife conflict, since 2005. Apart from the people it killed, it destroyed 60 houses and shops.

After calls for its relocation intensified, the state forest department ordered its capture on February 21. The original plan was to tame it to be a captive elephant. But this was opposed by animal rights activists, leading to a legal battle. Ultimately, the court ordered the government to collar and release it. Since being released, Arikomban has crossed forest ranges in Kerala and Tamil Nadu multiple times. The media has portrayed its movements as an attempt to “return home”. But Dr Arun Zachariah, the Kerala forest department’s chief veterinary surgeon, who led the team which relocated Arikomban, criticised such labelling. “Where is home? The Western Ghats were a continuous landscape of elephant corridors,” he told THE WEEK. “That entire system should have been considered home.” Forested areas of the Ghats are now heavily fragmented by human settlements.