Wild elephant shouldn’t be put to any discomfort:HC

Chennai: 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 and 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 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.